#(i dont wanna start discourse im just. really frustrated.)

[club-prideguin]

Just because an artist doesn't post a particular piece on a certain website, doesn't mean that you get to do it for them.

(Yes, this is abt the cadence/djpon3 fanart in the tag rn. Im familiar with the artist, he has a tumblr and it is. Not That....)

I mean, i know they linked to his twitter, but still.. If he doesn't want to post it on tumblr then whatever. You don't have the right to decide to post another artist's work for them.

(D0nt rb)

[velvetvexations]

Ive seen at least two responses to your antigonism post saying that the word would be divisive because “transfems who are normal about transmascs are the norm” and I really truly do believe that’s probably the case but at the same time it personally feels a little dismissive?? I cant speak for all trans people obviously but I know A LOT of trans people, basically everyone in my life is trans- my blood sibling, all of my friends, my 2 girlfriends (im poly) I am regularly in contact with other trans people/trans communities in several cities across my state, and for me it really does not feel like its a “small vocal minority” of transfems who hold anti transmasculine and exorsexist beliefs.

I want to make it clear I absolutely love the transfems in my community, they are my dearest friends, and I deeply treasure our relationships; but absolutely every one of them that I have gotten close to has ended up saying something to me that made me feel really weird. They either mention something about how transmascs have it easier/transfems have it the worst, or they feel the need to gatekeep things from other trans people& borderline accuse other trans people/intersex people of copying transfems, or they joke and complain about “theyfabs” or justify the use of the term (both of my gfs did this- mind you I was afab and exclusively use they/them pronouns), or they invalidate feminine transmasc and afab enby people (again something both of my gfs did despite me being genderfluid and sometimes presenting feminine).

And thats just some of the things Ive experienced IRL in my own home and within my own communities! If I were to start listing my experiences online Id be here all night!! I honestly want to go on about the shit I see online but I dont have the energy for it- but when I see exorsexist or anti trans masculinity coming from transfems (and self proclaimed tmes) online, the comments/notes/whatever is always filled with sometimes hundreds of other trans people agreeing and venting their own frustrations about “tmes” and it just. Again doesnt FEEL like its a minority. You are literally one of the only TWO transfems I know who makes content actively CONSISTENTLY standing up for transmascs and pushing back against anti trans masculinity. Its not that I think its transfems job to dismantle anti trans masculinity but the ratio of transfems who complain about tmes vs ones who actively push back against that rhetoric feels so disproportionate to how often I see transmasc and afab enbies pushback against trans misogyny and the exclusion of transfems in queer spaces.

This turned into a very long winded vent and Im kinda struggling to conclude my point but i guess I wish it felt like more people cared to pushback against TIRFism. It just feels kinda dismissive to hear people say that transmascs who are hesitant to interact w trans communities just need to touch grass or whatever when in my personal experience it feels like I cannot escape anti trasmasculinity or exorsexism in every trans space I am apart of. Kinda blanking on how to end this ask i hope any of this is coherent.

I wanna emphasize again that the person I responded to specifically was really cool and my emotions in this post are not directed at them

Recently someone said it was "easy to forget most trans women are normal about trans men," and I was scolded because me not thinking that was horribly transmisogynistic was apparently a sign I'd lowered my standards as a trans woman because I'm too discourse poisoned, so now I'm even more self-conscious that people will start to see me that way no matter how much I try to insist over and over that TRFs are a vocal minority.

Meanwhile I continue to get asks calling me a pickme and comparing me to Blair White. I continue to have ten people respond to my every reply going "don't listen to Velvet she's crazy and hates trans women!!!!!".

So yeah. It is, actually, easy to forget that sometimes.

Especially since I'm stuck in a tiny southern town without even the option to make use of what meager community exists in the area because there's no one to drive me several hours to the state capital for their annual Pride stuff. I can't just go outside and be gal pals with all the vast numberless hordes of Normal trans women. I would be shocked beyond fucking belief if I saw two gay cis men in my fucking zip code. With my personal situation I can't even be social with cishet people anyway, let alone other queers, let alone all the trans women others perceive as Normal because they've knowingly been in the physical presence of another trans person a single time in their life and have the option of making that happen when they want it to.

Thank you for the support, anon.

[nothorses]

i have a confession to make as a trans masc. you probably wont even wanna post it cus it doesn't really paint us in the best light and the ppl im angry at love to paint us as a monolith. but admittedly, the constant lateral hate and aggression i get from trans fems these days is actually making it very difficult to not hate them. and its extremely frustrating bc i know that's exactly what transphobes WANT. they want to divide us. and yet seeing so much hatred slung my way on a daily basis (im not even a discourse blog, its just everywhere) has me starting to think, "god i fucking hate trans women". i honestly do not know what to do about it. i dont want to hate them but the abuse won't stop. and i am extremely aware of the irony in being worried about them painting transmascs as a monolith while also painting them as a monolith. idk. im just so fucking exhausted. im tired. i want to stop being afraid of other trans people almost as much as i am of cis people.

I mean, it sounds to me like you're already aware that this is not the fault of trans women, and that there's no reason to blame this entire demographic for the shitty actions of a few. You know these thoughts aren't logical or correct; that's most of the battle here.

It seems like what you're asking isn't, "should I blame trans women for this?" but rather, "how do I stop thinking these thoughts that I know are wrong and unhelpful?"

And my answer to that is... well, Never Thinking A Thought Again is probably not a super reasonable goal. But you can act in a better way than that, and you can be aware of the fact that the thoughts are wrong, and you can make an effort to correct them when they do come up.

You might also think about changing the spaces you're in so they don't come up so much in the first place; distance yourself from spaces where you're receiving that kind of abuse, and seek out spaces where you can build positive relationships with a wide variety of trans people. Seek out transfem voices that are encouraging to hear (there are a lot of them!) and go out of your way to build connections that prove those thoughts wrong.

And most importantly: trust yourself! You know the thoughts are wrong. When they come up, you don't need to panic about whether thinking them makes you a bad person- you can just know that they're not logical, and trust that you don't really believe that, and keep working toward building a healthier environment for yourself & the people around you.

Good luck!

[ghostcrows]

im not going out of my way to find discourse yk like i dont know what im finding is that even people i thought i was leveling with, im not level with at all. like people im mutuals with im finding myself seriously disagreeing with and you know how that goes on this website...you do not wanna go against the grain unless its in a way so extreme that it makes people go "this guys obviously right due to his extreme opinion and utter conviction about it"...

im finding this so fucking frustrating because of the framing of it all around. i'm frustrated that i feel like i've turned into some "transandrophobia truther" mouthpiece when that isnt how i feel either, i'm frustrated that any criticisms around, idk what else to call it, baeddelism?? i guess?? insofar as i understand it? which may not be very much, i get that...but it's like being framed as such that if you are against that style of framing of gender politics then you are against trans women, which i am not...i'm against SOME beliefs of SOME trans women but that is not the same thing

what i'm interested in is not "shutting down tma people" what i'm interested in is not "telling women to shut up and respect men(?! the kind of thing i keep seeing people saying and itll be over like...'trans girls and trans guys shouldnt fight we should have sex' posts that corny as they may be at times have been around for years and years but are now being recontextualized to fit an argument)"...all i am interested in is refuting the spread of repackaged radical feminism...which does not mean i am calling tma people terfs either...

it's touchy, i get that it's touchy and of course it would be BECAUSE of the very real conditions tma people live under and the very real shit that comes their way all the fucking time for everything they do...and it's hard to find people who both agree that the environment as it stands IS touchy and hostile and not also be like "yuppppp and thats trans womens fault" its not their fucking fault man this is like years of underlying Weird Gender Conceptualization coming to fruition in, really just the logical conclusion of tumblr style identity politics. and thats not on trans women to fucking answer for cause they didnt start this theyre just one part of a very overarching and frustrating Thing you know.

i guess it boils down as ever to "average tumblr user has never known nuance" . like . fuckkkk lol

[faithlesbian]

fresh off my s7 rewatch i keep sticking on the scene after they find that potential that's hung herself in the night. buffy has to cut her down and bury her body in the garden, which is awful, but then she comes back inside to a room full of grieving, traumatised children, shovel still in hand, and says "anyone want to say a few words about chloe? let me. chloe was an idiot. chloe was stupid. she was weak."

for the rest of that scene she lashes out at pretty much everyone in some way with the reasoning that she's been "carrying them" and that they need to start pulling their weight. that scene is a tough one to watch just from how needlessly cruel she is to the potentials, watching them flinch when she throws the shovel she used to bury their dead friend is especially affecting, and while she's not technically wrong that willow and spike have both been holding back and not giving their all due to fear of their own power, verbally abusing them about it is really only gonna make it harder.

im usually a buffy stan first and a person second so watching her be so genuinely mean is hard for me, but the more i think about it the more i realise its not actually that ooc -- we know a major theme of s7 is the isolation of being the slayer, buffy acknowledges multiple times that she pushes people away and doesnt know how not to, the resolution of the main plot is her finding a way to share her power with the world. buffy's self-isolation and lashing out at her support network is an established trauma response that we first see in s2 when she's still reeling from being killed by the master. buffy in s6 had only recently started overcoming her suicidality before nearly getting raped by spike, so it's fair to say she's equally as unmoored in s7 as she was in early s2 if not way more so. in s3 she attacks a domestic abuse victim when she's struggling to come to terms with how she herself was hurt by angel, so her calling a suicidal teen "stupid and weak" after being suicidal herself actually does track. this is how buffy acts when she's at her most traumatised.

the thing that gets me about this instance compared to the others, though, is how bad a job they do at showing that. i think its pretty easy to say calling a suicidal teen stupid and weak is bad, right? doing so in front of a bunch of other vulnerable teens who are in the same boat is worse, right? no matter how unusual the circumstances, that kind of verbal abuse isnt going to help anyone "toughen up", its just abuse. but buffy doesnt apologise for any of it, willow defends her saying it, and i genuinely cant tell if she's narratively framed as in the wrong or not. buffy barely gets a chance to acknowledge just how traumatised she is this season, the PTSD symptoms she has from the rape in s6 just sort of go away after a while which is exactly how PTSD doesnt work, scenes like this get glossed over and used to build up to her friends kicking her out of her own house, which is such a majorly discoursed scene i dont wanna touch it with a barge pole but we all know that was not the ideal way to deal with any of that, right? the way she acts, which so clearly draws on how she's previously behaved when textually struggling with trauma, is never fully questioned or explored, leading to an ambiguous framing where an argument could easily be made that its meant to be seen as justified "tough" behaviour in a high stakes plot that demands it.

for the main plot to be resolved by buffy breaking the cycle that led to her original trauma, but to also fumble the depiction of that trauma an its effects, is deeply frustrating. because yes! too much had been expected of her by everyone in that room for too long! but part of the reason is her own refusal to ask for or accept help, and that distance between her and those around her is only made worse by her lashing out at them. and she deserved to process that in an emotionally cathartic way at some point before the finale

[azuresage]

I’d go off anon but I’m too much of a chicken 😅. But I’m mainly referring to like the discourse and negativity in the community about TOTK. It’s like everyone is just finding anything and everything wrong and just pulling stuff out of nowhere to complain about at this point. And if you try to say ANYTHING positive than there’s always someone telling you how wrong you apparently are. Also the whole continuity discourse. IMO Zelda stories are excellent at keeping their respective games stories contained within themselves (if that even makes any sense), but the continuity between games is almost always nonexistent. There are some exceptions though. Like look at Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass and tell me how much those games actually connect. anyway I hope that even answers your question.

ahh, yeah. i know exactly what you mean. i think the negativity is just a vocal minority and most people really like the game. but it is frustrating.

as far as the continuity discourse goes, i dont think its really that difficult to grasp. i think most people who say it isnt consistent are people who were already unhappy with the direction of the story coming off botw and weren't paying attention as a result. it does an extremely good job of picking up where botw left off, and i definitely feel that even aoc helped set it up. as far as the continuity with the rest of the series goes, i subscribe to the refounding theory because it doesnt make sense otherwise and theres too much in-game evidence for me to see it as anything other than refounding. personally, i think the wild era trilogy is using refounding as a soft reset for the series without having to actually do a reset, setting everything so far in the future beyond any of the previous games that the cycle is starting over again, which i think is cool. we'll have to see what the next game does to be sure though.

i dont really think zelda as a series is actually inconsistent across the board, there's noticeable arcs in the storytelling across games. if it feels inconsistent, i think its mostly on the fault of the localization team taking liberties. for example, sonia being referring to as part of the hyrule clan in the japanese text but i dont think she ever was in english, which implies a hyrule family once existed in hyrule before rauru came along (aka refounding evidence). stuff like that not carrying over to the wider international audience is part of why these discourses happen, i think. also a lot of zelda lore is intentionally left up for fan interpretation and i think a lot of fans are wanting actual concrete stuff and dont wanna have to think about it themselves. this leads to people calling the lore lazy or inconsistent just because its not explicitly laid out for them.

i dont really take issue with the way zelda's lore is handled, honestly. as long as the games are fun to play, that's a lot more important to me. despite all of this rambling, im 100% a "gameplay before story" kind of guy, lol. but its still fun to think about.

[saetoru]

hey tee, can i ask something? so ik how frustrating it can be when anons send hate, but what’s it like when other blogs do it?? how do you handle it?? & i dont mean when they’re like directly talking to you, but subtweeting in a way…am i explaining this well????? idk but something that i hate is when people will just ask & ask & ask you to write as if you’re a machine & not a human being.

there’s a particular account that never writes (which is completely fine), and they always ask everyone to be patient & etc. but they constantly talk abt how “no one writes like they used to” or just complain abt other people’s writing in general & it’s just so sad to see bc as a creator on this app, they should immediately understand tht people are not fucking machines & struggle with writer’s block & stuff like that. she just gives off big hypocritical vibes. idk if you’re mutuals w/ them or not (hopefully not).

her writing is fine, but as a person… idk. im not gonna say who it is, but they’re pretty known on tumblr. it really bugs me when she says stuff like that and then her followers just back her up like nothing’s wrong. generally speaking, i believe u can say whatever tf u want on your own blog, but some of the stuff she says just really upsets me, especially since im starting to write on tumblr. i have blocked her, but after seeing some the things she’s said, plus the amount of people that agree with her is making me real self conscious abt my work.

so yea, how do u feel when stuff like that happens to you?? im so sry for the long ask, but hopefully you can take the time to respond. it would mean a lot! ❤️

hi bestie !! i will answer under the cut:

i just block lmao. like deadass half of a lot writers on here ??? chances are i’ve blocked them and tbh that might sound bad but if i see a discourse or a “hot take” that i fully disagree with, or rubs me wrong, i block. and that’s bc i think all of us as writers, even if it’s the smallest part of our brains, compare ourselves to other writers. so i block writers that give me bad vibes bc i don’t wanna subconsciously start comparing myself to them in a manner that makes me question myself like you said. if a writer thinks majority of fanfic mostly sucks now, well i guess they’re not reading my sucky content bc they are b l o c k e d !!!

i actually have like two or three very strongly voiced ppl blocked that always say “fanfic isn’t what it used to be” or “all fanfic is the same now” and i think personally it’s a really entitled and annoying thing to say. if someone came into a writer’s inbox and said those exact things on anon, everyone would jump to attack that anon and say “it’s free content be grateful.” i don’t think someone being a writer gives them the right to dictate such strong opinions openly about other peoples fanfic writing styles/methods/choices. even if you provide content, you’re still consuming free content just as everyone else. it’s one thing to politely offer advice as one writer to another with good intentions, but that’s very clearly seen in your tone and how you word the message. if you think fanfic isnt what it used to be, then write what you want to see ??? it’s simple.

so yeah either way i would block that individual—maybe i already have them blocked too who knows LMAO i hope i do. but i wouldn’t let it get to you because tbh in my experience ppl who have the most to say about other writers have the emptiest masterlists 💀 the rest of us are too busy focusing on our writing to care about what other people are posting and whatnot. block them, block their friends that agree, block anyone else that agrees with them. LMAO i’m not saying this to act like “ur always right and everyone else is always wrong” but tbh if u just block all the ppl ur disagree with, then at one point ur dash will just be peaceful

take it from me !! the girlie that is blocked by like 75% of this app !! just remove people you don’t wanna see. filter their urls, unfollow ppl they heavily interact with, curate ur own experience without being a bitch. rant to ur friends, get it off ur chest privately but like don’t subpost them in a rly obvious manner and start more drama bc it’s just always gonna be a mess that way.

and tbh there’s a lot of things that ppl in a fandom community can and should come and discuss in a civil manner without peoples feelings getting hurt like meta and popularly flawed characterization patterns, but i think bitching about the “quality” of fanfic is a rly nasty thing to openly complain about bc it’s just unwarranted and discouraging. a lot of people are on here for fun, not to write new york times best selling novels, so just let them have their fun :/

[enderspawn]

It's alright if u don't wanna answer this cuz this argument gets people really riled up but do you think c!Techno is a tyrant or nah?

Cuz many c!techno apologists argue that he isn't just cuz he's an anarchist but I've also read a lot of essays that go against it and it'd be really interesting to see ur opinion on this

i think he, in some contexts, can most definitely be called tyrannical, yes. a tyrant? no.

to avoid spamming ppl w discourse we've all def heard before (and bc this ended up MASSIVE (like 2.3k ish), but fairly in depth bc i didnt wanna speak out of bad faith and wanted to be EXPLICTLY clear-- oops), the rest will be under readmore

so heres the thing i want to preface: i used to really LOVE c!techno. i joined beginning of s2, right when exile started, and he was arguably my favorite character. since then though i've fallen out with him a LOT, to the point i almost... actively despite him at times (though mainly in a toxic kind of way which i can acknowledge is flawed).

in short, his actions started to speak louder than his words and i lost investment in his personal character struggles because of the actions he took (doomsday was my breaking point. i get feeling angry and betrayed, as well as seeking revenge against lmanberg, but his actions went too far for me to CARE and it hurt so many more characters as well.)

so when i speak, i come from a place of disliking him but also somewhat understanding the position c!techno apologists come from: i used to be one of them myself.

NOW, do i think he's a tyrant? no. for reference in my analysis, i try to look up the definition of terms to make sure they are utilized properly. while "tyranny" and "tyrannical" can have multiple uses, tyrant itself is a more specific term. to combine the top two definitions, a tyrant is referring to "an extremely oppressive, unjust, or cruel absolute ruler (who governs without restrictions, especially one who seized power illegally.)"

techno's position as an anarchist, imo, DOES indeed make him unable to be a tyrant. tyrants are rulers with very clear power over others from a structural way. anarchists are about the lack of structure or power over others and instead viewing the people around you as equals in power.

in forming the syndicate, they very explicitly worked to not designate a leader and instead make it so that no one would have any power over the others systemically. techno may have taken a integral role, yes, but it doesn't make him suddenly "the leader", its a role that wouldve had to be filled by someone (even if it was democratic to decide who to invite, they'd need someone to hand over the invite itself yknow? like no matter WHAT there needed to be A ROLE)

one could argue that he IS a leader in the shadow hierarchy of the syndicate (which, yes, is a real and professional term used in management courses despite sounding like it comes from a 4kids yugioh dub) in that everyone CONSIDERS and looks to him a leader without him having any actual structural basis behind it, but to argue that allows him to be a tyrant is in bad faith i believe. especially because to the people he would be "ruling", he ISNT oppressive, unjust, or cruel. they are his friends and support network and critical for a lot of his personal development (since feelings of betrayal and trust issues are critical to his character and why he acts the way he does). I wish we were able to SEE this develop more, but oh well.

but like i said: tyrant is fairly specific in definition. TYRANNY, and thus TYRANNICAL are not as limited. I've discussed their definitions here. originally, i made that post because i was angry at a take i had seen that claimed that, like you said, because techno was an anarchist and not part of any government or leadership position, he couldn't be tyrannical. to which i heartily disagree.

for something to be tyrannical, they simply must have an overarching/oppressive power over someone or something. it would not be inaccurate if i were to say that something is "under the tyranny" of a concept, because what it means is that something is under the power of another thing/concept. you can frankly call anything tyranny if it is widespread/overarching and you don't like it. mask mandates? tyranny, its forcing me to act in "rigorous condition". hell, theres even such things as tyranny of the majority in which people agree too much on one thing and it gives them unfair power or tyranny of the minority where people with minority opinions have too much power (thats a very grossly oversimplified definition of both, but it covers the base idea well enough for my point)

the point im making above isnt meant to be taken as "anything can be worked to be defined as tyranny thus it is a meaningless claim", it is that tyranny (and again, thus tyrannical) are very open and nonrestrictive terms.

to make it easier to define, alongside the definitions provided i want to add an explicit clause that is (imo) implied in the original definition: tyranny is... well, bad. that is to say if someone has power over a group but literally everyone is fine with it and agrees to it, its not tyranny. thats just a group of people getting along and one happens to have power over another. a leader does NOT equal a tyrant (as discussed above), so leadership should not be equated with tyranny.

thus as an example: wilbur acting as president (before the election) may have been "unelected" with power over his citizens, but no one was upset with that power. thus, he is not a tyrant and not acting tyrannically (as well as the fact his power was, arguably, NOT rigourous or absolute but thats another topic for another time). SCHLATT however IS a tyrant, as his power was absolute (he did not consult his cabinet) and forced people to comply instead of them complying willingly, thus he was acting tyrannically.

now to finally get to the damn point of this essay: where does c!techno lie? honest answer? it depends slightly on your perspective, but it depends a LOT on the future of the syndicate.

techno is incredibly clear in his goals: no governments, no corruption. in fighting with pogtopia, he is actively working to topple a tyranny-- he isn't tyrannical for doing that.

when he strikes out on nov 16th, it is because he opposes them forming a new government. when they oppose him and disagree, he launches an attack against them. is this tyranny? maybe, but probably not. he IS trying to impose his own physical strength and power (as well as his resources) over the others to stop them from doing what HE doesn't want them to do.

however its more nuanced than that:

1. hes lashing out emotionally as well as politically. he feels betrayed by those he trusted and he believed that they would destroy the government then go (i'm ignoring any debates on if he did or did not know that they planned another government, though it is a source of debate). but typically idk about you but i dont call tyranny for someone fighting with another person.

2. he also may be acting with good intent again, in HIS EYES. if tubbo was part of manburg, whos to say he wont be just as bad? he, in his pov, is likely trying to stop another tyrant before they rise.

3. and finally, and tbh the most damning from any perspective: he gives up. he quickly leaves then RETIRES without intent to try and attack again until he is later provoked. tyranny is defined by it not just being power, but power being USED. if he doesn't use his power to try and impose any will, then he's not tyrannical.

Doomsday I am also not going to touch very in depth on for much of the same reasons. My answer is again a "maybe", depending on the weight you personally place on each issue:

1. he's lashing out as revenge for the butcher army and as revenge against tommy for "betraying" him (though this one we explicitly know he was ignoring the fact tommy did not want to go through with it, however he still did trust and respect tommy regardless so his feelings are understandable anyway)

2. he sees new lmanberg as corrupt and tyrannical (which is undeniable: house arrest for noncompliance, exile without counsel, execution without trial, etc), and thus obligated to destroy it

but also, theres the implicit understanding he's doing this to send a message: do not form a government, or else. its a display of force that also works to warn others unless they want a similar fate. phil even explicitly states that he is doing so to send that message, so one could assume techno is doing the same alongside his personal reasoning listed above.

what i just described is the use of a oppressive and harsh (physical) power in order to gain compliance from people (that compliance being 'not making a government'). does that sound familiar? exactly. it follows the definition(s) of tyranny given previously. technoblade is acting in a way that is, by very definition, tyrannical.

so the debate shifts: is he valid in doing so because he is trying to PREVENT corruption and tyranny. like i said, new lmanberg was undeniably corrupt at points. i held nothing against techno for trying to topple manburg, so does that apply to new lmanberg as well? short answer: i dont know. it depends on your specific opinion of what is acceptable. its like the paradox of tolerance: to have a truly tolerant society, you have to be intolerant of intolerance. to have a truly non-tyrannical society, do you need to have a tyranny enforcing it?

personally (and bc im a lmanberg loyalist /hj) i say it is. regardless of the corruption of new lmanberg, they are also giving a threat to EVERYONE. even those who are innocent, they are presented with the exact same threat and rule set: if you make a government, you will be destroyed.

(which, small divergence here, is part of why debating c!techno is so frustrating. so many times you end up hitting a "well it depends on your political views" situation and there ISNT a correct answer there. im here to analyze characters for fun, not debate political theory)

so: the syndicate then. this is where this debate really "took off" and i think its due to one very specific miscommunication about its goals and plans. the syndicate, upon formation, declares itself to stand against corruption and tyranny. when they are found, the syndicate would work to destroy it. so heres the golden question: what do THEY define as corruption and tyranny? if you were to go off c!techno's previous statements, seemingly "any government" is a valid answer. however, he also states he's fine with people just being in groups together hanging together.

what then DEFINES A GOVERNMENT for them? what lines do they have to sort out what does "deserve to be destroyed" and what does "deserve to exist freely"

this is a hypothetical i like to post when it comes to syndicate discourse:

i have a group of people. lets say 5 or so for example. they all live together and build together. any decisions made that would impact the entire group they make together and they must have a unanimous agreement in order to proceed, but otherwise they are free to be their own people and do their own thing. when you ask them, they tell you they are their own nation and they have a very clearly defined government: they are a direct democracy. does the syndicate have an obligation to attack?

there is absolutely no hierarchy present. there is no corruption present. but, they ARE indeed a government. is that then inherently negative? my answer is fuck no (see the whole "difference between a tyrant and a leader" thing above).

but THATS where the issue of this discourse LIES. in some people's eyes, the answer to that is YES. techno's made it clear "no government" is his personal view, but does that spread to the syndicate as a whole? do they act preemptively in case it DOES become corrupt? is it inherently corrupt because its a government, regardless of how it is ruled? the fact of the matter is because of how little we've seen the syndicate work as a SYNDICATE, we don't know that answer. so we're left to debate and speculate HOW they would act.

if the syndicate were to let that government exist, then they are not tyrannical. they are showing that they are working to stop tyranny and corruption, just like in pogtopia again.

if the syndicate were to destroy/attack that government, then they are tyrannical. simple as that. they are enforcing a rule of their own creation without any nuance or flexibility under the threat of absolute destruction.

miscommunication in debates comes, in my opinion, in the above. of course theres more points of nuance. for example:

would the syndicate allow a government like i had described with early lmanberg, where there is an established hierarchy but everyone in the country consents to said leadership? on one hand, there is no tyranny or corruption present which is what they are trying to work against. on the other hand, theres more a possibility of it occuring. perhaps they'd find a middle road between the two binary options of "leave or destroy" i am presenting, such as checking in occasionally to ensure no corruption occurs.

but if they were to destroy it without, for lack of a better word, "giving it a chance" they would be, in my opinion, tyrannical. they would be going aginst their words of opposing corruption and instead abusing their power to gain compliance.

your/others opinions may differ, again it depends on if you see it as worth it to possibly stop future tyranny or if a hierarchy is INHERENTLY a negative thing.

part of the reason so many blog gave up this debate, beyond not getting very clear answers for the syndicate, is because of the nuance present. there. is. no. right. answer. every single person will view it differently, because there is no universally agreed upon truth of right or wrong here. BUT, i hope this helps shed some light on the discussion and my thoughts on it

[reineyday]

some feelings abt touya and bnha 302 in general! (long post)

jesus this whooooole chapter makes me so so so sad for touya, like he's canonically a crier and i just have all these images now of him crying off to the side while enji looks at his other kids and gives them the time of day. knowing that he was/is a frustrated crier makes the fact that dabi cant cry cuz of his burned tear ducts that much sadder ohhman

one of the things i cant get over is how touya was SO shunned by his dad that when he went to go tell enji about his fire turning from red to blue, he says "i might be as awesome as shouto sooner or later!" like?? this boy is 13 and shouto is 5 yet he's talking like the brother that's eight years younger than him is better than him and thar it's just a fact. the sky is blue, enji wants to beat all might one day, and shouto is better than the rest of his siblings. nevermind that he's only five and just wants to play with his siblings (and dont even mention to me how shouto says he wants to play with "touya and them" cuz im gonna fucking cry abt it. like even though touya's accepted he's bottom of the ladder in this family, shouto clearly wants some sort of acknowledgement from his older siblings and especially his older brother. IM FVCKN SOBBN). enji has made it clear in this family that shouto was what he was looking for and everyone else is not as important, and i knew this from shouto's pov but it's kinda wild to see it implied so casually in touya's words.

"you'll be glad you created me! i just know it!" HOLY SHIT. god my heart. oh my fuck. literally all enji had to do was show up to the fucking mountain, and he couldnt even do that? what the hell?? your son asks you to go to the mountain, you tell your wife not to let him go traim but she said she couldnt stop him, and instead of going yourself to make sure he's okay and BECAUSE HE ASKED YOU TO COME (and with an actually valid reason, no less! fire changing colour is kind of a big fucking deal!!!) you just?? let him go and let him stay there??? my god the amount of times touya must have burned himself and the trees with tears in his eyes. ahhhHHH!!!

what kills me (and touya too soon?) was that we thought before the back story started that enji forced touya to train till he burned up. then when 290 came out--and definitely after 301--we thought maybe touya overtrained himself and burned up. and sure, he was definitely overtraining, but to find out that the burns that "killed" him started just bc he was crying so much he lost control and didnt know how to ease up on his flames? he was upset and literally trying to get himself to stop crying, and then he just set himself aflame and burned up cuz of all his emotions??? that HURTS. holy fuck.

i cant believe natsuo's feeling lowkey guilty for not socking enji in the face like he wasnt EIGHT???? and let's be real, enji woukdnt have fucking listened to natsuo telling him to talk to touya--he already wasnt listening when touya would straight up say "look at me" and when even rei said touya just wanted enji to look at him and notice him. listen, i know sometimes miscommunications happen in families and children are embarrassed to admit they want attention and so their parents remain unaware that theyre not giving their kid something they want, but touya was as clear as can be on MANY occasions, and even rei agreed touya needed the attention and enji just wasnt listening.

also i know there was discourse abt touya being sexist by telling natsu that "the women in this house are good for nothing" and mb it was partly diff translations cuz i feel like saying "this house" makes it specific to rei and yumi instead of all women everywhere, but even disregarding that--i think it's a valid thought for him to have when rei wasnt standing up for him (where he could see, at least) and yumi admitted herself that she was too scared to interfere and so just tried to fix things and keep appearances. i feel like based on what touya's seen from them, it makes sense that he has that opinion. (also gonna mention that i think rei's and yumi's choices also make sense and i think they were valid, seeing as how they were afraid as well.)

and poor natsu being woken up in the middle of the night (what was implied to be often enough, esp cuz it seemed they share a room and their futons are close) bc of touya's pain. that's a lot of emotional responsibility for an eight year old, and it is also so sad that at 13, touya didnt have anyone else to turn to but his kid brother. at 13, i remember being fully aware of the distinction in maturity between an 8 year old and myself, and it sucks that touya couldnt go to anyone but a younger child with all his pain. i bet yumi being too scared to interfere translated to touya as "she wouldnt help me" and thats another reason he didnt go to the 2nd oldest when he needed to vent. (also not related to this but how the FUCK was natsuo so tall at 8 years old? wh a t)

this chapter. this fucking chapter. my heart aches for touya, and it's just such a huge fucking shame he didnt get the attention and validation and support he needed. there must have been workarounds so that touya could safely use his quirk. there weere DEFINITELY better ways to support your son through a self-destructive quirk, ways that involved actually being there and seeing him. i feel like if someone showed him the attention he needed and talked him through how to better control his emotions (and by extension, his flames) and a positive and healthy way, he could have been someone so great. and if he ever learned how to set aside the way he felt infefior to shouto and saw that shouto just wanted to play with his cool older siblings, it might have been really beneficial to see that there was someone there who thinks he's cool and gave him attention just bc he was an older brother, who needed him when everyone else in the househild didnt seem to need him.

and lastly, the fact that the chapter ends with rei saying that shouto is the family hero and that shouto will have to face dabi?? and it makes me angry that shouto has to take on that responsibility. that he was five and suffering for things he wasnt even a part of, couldnt be properly aware of, bc he was so young. he just saw that he was separated from his siblings and that his dad bullied his mom, then grew up shouldering enji's heavy goals and high expectations and abusive training alongside the barely-there memories of his older brother who died (i say barely there bc if natsu didnt even know shouto liked cold soba, shouto was definitely not around enough to have solid memories of touya before he "died"), and now he has to do the emotional labour of fighting his villain brother (who i bet shouto lowkey empathizes with when he thinks abt it late at night) as well as suffer the physical consequences of that agni kai. and it makes me angry that he has to do that, bc he's a Good Guy and he probably feels he has some sort of filial and familial responsibility. he's only 16. he just wanted to play with touya and them, and now he has to deal with this horse shit dabi's causing cuz his dad's an emotionally neglecting asshat who couldnt see past his dumb fucking ego until he saw shouto play with a bunch of kids during shou's remedial exam a decade after his eldest son burned himself to death. what the fuckety fuck.

lastly, since we saw touya burn uo the way he did... did he really just like... burn so much his jaw fell off, and that's how they found the jawbone? cuz holy hot (BURNING too soon???) damn that must have been painful as all hell. i wonder if next chapter we get to see if someone found touya at the park and helped him out and sorted out the jaw bone thing, or if we finally get to see if deku wakes up lol.

anyways this chapter hurt my heart big time, and i kinda wanna draw kid touya crying while being overlooked by his family to let out some of those feelings but we'll see.

and i still stand by my idealistic and naively optimistic hope that dabi gets redeemed and they soend some actually time together as a family (without enji. or at least, with an enji that has apologized to touya in seiza. like, forehead-to-floor apologize.)

does this hope sort out how dabi redeems himself, seeing as how he's murdered people in cold blood and shouldnt be excused for that bc those actions are also inarguably terrible? no. not sure how he could redeem himself for that kinda stuff honestly, but it doesnt mean i dont still somehow want the todoroki sibs to get along, cuz im weak for mending families.

also id like to send a huge kudos out into the world to rei todoroki for being firm for once and for also not running away from her mistakes like her asshole husband has been. i really admire and respect that. she was afraid and being abused, but now that she's been away from enji and has had time to heal, now that her and shouto are in the mend and she's seen that her eldest son is alive and a villain, she's a place where she can acknowledge that even though she was a victim too, she played a part in touya's emotional neglect and she's taking responsibility and that speaks to some incredible fucking strength. damn.

i hope one day that dabi realizes the same in regards to his mother and natsuo, who shouldered a lot of his emotional pain and suffered the consequences of his outbursts (even though his emotions are valid and his outbursts understandable, he still hurt rei and put a lot of pressure on natsu), and i also hope he sees that for all that he hates his father, his whole existence revolves around enji and it's a shitty place to be (and then he'll have ANGST abt it and that shit will be!! so good!!!)

yeah i think those were all my feelings. i had so many lol. their family situation is so difficult, i hope they all turn out okay and alive and healing.

oh i guess i also wanted to say that i kept calling enji an asshat and asshole cuz he was for sure, but i still think his redemption is valid and im glad he's taking those steps to be a better person by being a better father. i dont know if id want his family to forgive him for all that horrible shit he put them through (im personally hoping that no matter what anyone else does, natsuo will choose to to cooperate in the healing of his family as a unit but will never forgive enji) but i think it's good of people to try to be better than they were yesterday regardless of whether or not they get forgiveness. i dont personally like enji, but i dont hate that he's getting a redemption. i just hope it's a redemption that makes sense and forces him to put in the work, and isnt something like a death sacrifice for shouto or dabi. i want him to be alive and i want his redemption process to hurt like a fucking bitch while he forces himself to make better choices and be a better person, cuz redemption isnt supposed to be easy in the slightest. i GUESS all the crying he did in 302 was a good start.

anyways, if for some reason you read all the way down to the bottom--hello! and thanks for reading haha. cheers! :)))

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

What happened to the sunset lesbian flag?

i just explained this in private to a friend so i don’t want to get Too into it, but i’ll give you the quick-ish vers? also none of this will be sourced but i’m not gonna make shit up, if anything’s wrong i just misremembered so just shout in the comments.

also before anyone starts shit, if you hadnt already pieced this together, im a lesbian. i am fully within my rights to talk about this, bc this is an issue with my own community. dont call me lesbophobic for calling this out bc there are real problems here and we as a community need to acknowledge that

general reasons not to like it:

-it’s based off the lipstick flag. if you’re not aware, the whole reason we started doing this search for a new flag is because the creator of the lipstick flag is really really gross. like aggressively racist, biphobic, iirc butchphobic too. and also the flag design was stolen, apparently. and basing our new community flag, that’s explicitly meant to be moving Away from that, on that flag? is really really nasty! 

-it’s hard to make merch for which was also an issue w/ the lipstick flag (shocking! what! there are issues associated with the lipstick flag that carried over to a flag based on it?? gasp! who could have seen this coming??) this is basically bc it needs different shades of colors, which can be hard to find if you’re making physical stuff. especially for people who handmake their merch and need to buy fabric/yarn and have to color check each fabric against the others they’re using to make sure it’s not too close but not too far. deeply frustrating!

-the creator’s kinda sketchy. i’ve been trying to dodge this discourse bc it makes me feel like shit so i havent totally kept up on this but she used to be an ace exclusionist, kinda-sorta backed off when her flag got popular and people pointed that out (which in and of itself is kinda shitty like? did you actually change your views or did you just not wanna get called out bc it sounds like the latter!). and also something about copyright law i don’t really remember. and the way she uses her flag’s popularity for money is just kinda :/ to me. 

reasons i personally don’t like it:

-almost all the cases where this flag is used and promoted, are cases where either 

a) someone’s trying to force a merch creator to sell this flag. which is gross gross no thank you nasty. i mean like calling them lesbophobic, borderline slandering, and trying to shut them down if they decline selling this flag. which the creators are fully within their rights to do bc as i said above it’s a hard flag to make merch for. also let people sell what the fuck ever they want? even if it didn’t have merch issues, don’t tell people what to do with their own shop. 

b) it’s being used by someone who explicitly wants to exclude people from the lesbian community. so people against nb lesbians, trans women, aspec ppl, so on and so forth. it should go without saying that banding under a flag that was, first and foremost, adopted by exclusionists and gatekeepers? is not great. 

-also if you’ve been a lesbian on tumblr, you may have noticed that it’s been fucking forced on everyone and defined as “the flag” and all other alternatives got thrown out and this makes me so fucking angry every time i think about it and. anyway. thats most of the reason im so touchy about this. bc i am sick and tired of having to repeat myself into the void and my only response being more people trying to shove this piece of garbage down my throat. i do not want it. i do not like it. fuck off. [im editing this post bc i want to make it really really clear how gross this is. this flag doesn’t represent the entire community. do not act like it does. do not present it as The lesbian flag. you are forcing people to define their community by something they hate. you are disgusting.]

[mechecolomar-archive]

I really hate that you can’t put your opinion on the internet without someone interpreting it as a personal attack on them. Especially on here, for some reason people always either take it as some sort of public debate and start to argue with you, its somehow labeled as fandom discourse, or its flat out seen as hate when it’s literally just your one opinion??

I know usually the people who say, “I guess I cant state my opinion anymore!” probably said something really shitty, but on here I truly feel like if I said how I feel about literally anything someone will get offended even if it had nothing to do with them or it’s an overall unimportant topic (like me not liking a game or a character)

For example, if I said something as simple as, “I dislike/hate oranges.” someone would feel the need to make this psa along the lines of, “remember guys, it’s okay to like the fruit orange!! #orangepositivity” or sometimes even get a bit snarky back (while still being indirect) and be like, “Wow, I guess we cant like the fruit orange anymore... love all the negativity in the fruit fandom.”, or “Am I really still seeing fruit discourse on my dash in the year 2019″, but its what I personally think about it, not a “fuck you” to everyone who likes said thing??? And even if I was to say it in a more aggressive tone (Fuck oranges/I hate oranges) its still my opinion??

Its just so ridiculous how personally some people take things and its incredibly frustrating basically seeing someone vague me, referencing what i said, immediately after i’d share how i felt about something and misconstruing it into this evil hate. Things like that would still happen even if I barely even mentioned how I felt about something.

I understand if someone is already insecure about liking said thing, but people should unfollow if they dont like that i dont also like something?? I have no clue how people could get offended I dont think the same way as they do... It’s so annoying that people interpret it as hate. It’d obviously be different if i was like “Everyone who likes cats is dumb and needs to die.”, problematic or morally wrong, but I've never said anything like that... It just drives me crazy!!!!! I know if I get more followers or whatever i’ll see more people who disagree with me and want to make a scene and I should ignore it, but its still so absurd... why can no one look past dissimilar interests and just respect that we have different likes and dislikes. me not liking ur favorite game, liking a character u hate, hating a character u love isnt some declaration of war?? and why would you follow someone when you dont have any shared interests

i made this blog basically focused on games/shows and with some aesthetic shit thrown in, so obviously i decided im not gonna randomly talk about controversial topics but I will definitely say things like “hey i like/dislike this game. i thought it was good/bad because...” because i really do like games and all that and i wanna talk about it!! and i think its just sad i finally decided i should put my foot down with passive aggressive comments abt my opinions when i finally thought i could put express my opinions. i think i wanna try and make a conscious effort to be more confident on here and say how i feel about things i consume without thinking i need to turn off anon/replies or whatever bc i dont like cullenrutherford, dont unconditionally support game companies like blizzard/ea/bethesda/etc, struggled playing a level in okami, havent played that many japanese games, or whatever other thing i’ve said ppl will get upset by

[synthcabbit]

im gonna complain about how shitty tumblr is and what it made me into for a second

tumblr has been a safe haven for me since i first joined in the beginning of 2012. i made so many friends who im still friends with today. its helped me figure myself out with gender and sexuality as well.

i started getting into discourse around late 2013 - early 2014, at the time i was considered 'anti sjw'. i had some harassment a little before that even while i wasnt too open about shit but it became a very big issue. there were a group of users (who i still very much loathe) that had harassed me and my friends pretty fucking badly. for me it got to the point to where i deleted (kinda the worst decision). yes at the time i was a little shit but i absolutely did not deserve what fucking happened. i had callout posts (which is fine because i was a lil shit, thats normal), but i was also being misgendered (i was very early into questioning my gender) by certain users, threatened, and degraded which was really uncalled for (mostly by said certain users). i will always hate those users, mostly that particular one (some of you know exactly who im talking about)

a former friend made a post during this time about how i was manipulative (when we talked i literally only tried my best to reassure her that if she was uncomfortable with a convo topic that she didnt have to talk about it. i also vented to her about my living situation) and it kinda really fucked me up. from that little post is where i began to start to feel like i was actually manipulative anyways. it was the beginning of being scared to talk about my situations and feelings in fear i was manipulating people

so i of course remade like a couple days later because tumblr was very much still important to me despite the bullshit. i was still heavy af into discourse tho. anyways, i dont think i really tried to bother too much with those users anymore. there were still fights every now and then but i just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. after a while i apologized to a certain one for being a shithead to them, i wanted to be friends and so we started talkin a little bit and we did become friends. unfortunately we dont talk anymore tho.

i slowly became more leftist, kinda doing a 180 (tho i was not a rightwinger. i kinda never really was but i called myself an egalitarian and on tumblr its kinda a different story). i learned more about topics, i learned what otherkin actually was (because i was anti due to the trolls that i took seriously) and it helped me out so much with my spirituality and helped me discover a VERY vital part of my being. for that i am very happy for.

after my discovery and kinda half diagnosis of bpd, i followed a hefty amount of bpd blogs, both support blogs and other folks with it. it was nice but after a while id see a lot of shit basically saying shit like 'if youre in a relationship and you ask what your partner is doing/where they are/etc then youre a manipulative abusive asshole'. that also scarred me because i just get curious about my bf if hes late from comin home from work or just in general. i dont have ill intensions like i just wanna know so i know. tumblrs mindset with this stuff and wow if you even just THINK about where your partner is/etc etc then youre abusive and should die. or if you discuss your emotional frustrations your manipulative. that shit fucked me up so much to the point where i constantly think im really manipulative when i talk about anything thats bothering me or showing negative emotions or just anything like that. im always fucking scared that im being abusive to my bf if im not comfortable with something or whatever. it fucked me up big time.

so kinda more recently within like 2017, i fell heavily into ace discourse. it was fucking stupid and i hate myself for getting into exclusionist bullshit. before this i was very supportive of ace folks as part of the lgbt community. idk why i even bothered getting into that. im not an exclusionist anymore. i had to force myself to become distanced from it because it constantly got me fucking pissed. thats what helped me come to my senses and get rid of that dumbass mindset that was literally only a tumblr exclusive issue.

ive seen so many bullshit hot takes and reaches on that site that its beyond mind boggling. its an incredibly toxic site and despite not regretting making one, i regret ever getting into discourse. its definitely not that bad if you dont bother with discourse. but oh my god its fucking disgusting. i hate the site yet im still on it. really ive just been on there so long that ill go down with its downfall. im not deleting until im deleted kinda deal. i dont really go on there as much as i used to, im mainly on here really. but i try not to focus on discourse on there anymore. im mostly there for art, aesthetic stuff, photography, and of course dumb shitposts and vents. if i engage in discourse its normally with dealing with anti kin and rarely syscourse.

to conclude, tumblr is not a good place for your mental health. it has fucked me up as stated above. i feel bad for all the young teens who get on there and get sucked into all that bullshit.

[bogfaeri]

im confused with the discourse rn about asexuality. why is there so much discussion of labels/terms and whether ace people fit into that? why is there such a long ass discussion about this - aren't these labels/terms doing a little too much harm idk? it's def true that it's inappropriate for people to act as if they've gone through things that they haven't, but seems counterproductive that the community (which is oppressed already) has to infight over this. ps act like im 5, dont wanna be a dick

Hey! so, theres a lot going on and im not reaaaaally like an expert? honestly @official-leo-valdez might be able to give you a more straight forward and confident answer than me, but i’ll do my best.

My opinion tends to be that unless you are trans or experience same gender attraction, you cannot reclaim slurs directed at the LGBT community, this is pretty much the biggest thing for me. I also get very frustrated at the way that the aro/ace community treats non-ace gay people, lesbians especially, and the concept of “allosexual privilege.” While i understand theres a societal stigma around being ace, I don’t think you could say there is a history of systematic oppression. I don’t think a label that is a measure of how you feel attraction should be equated to labels about what gender that attraction is toward? I believe thinking like that could be pretty harmful

I’m really happy that people on the ace/aro spectrum have found a way of talking about their identities that works, i’m happy they have a community, and i understand they face struggles too!!! I just think these are important things to keep in mind.

Anyway those are my rambly 2 cents on the matter! hope this was at least a little helpful! 

~disclaimer, please don’t drag me into discourse over this, i’m not trying to start a fight at all. @official-leo-valdez would probably be more likely to want to argue these points with you!