#FOR THE SAKE OF theoretical organization

[samthecookielord]

Who even is this guy whats up with him

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also quite the illustration in wags being like "'not asking permission' - wags" and plowing through someone expressing a physical boundary but he was already intending to use physical violence & violation & assumed corresponding distress as a tool to get his way....amidst the typicality, "correctness," permissibility of all that around here like five times an hour

[paper-mario-wiki]

Could you explain how Ambrosia is able to come back after dying?

1

Sure yeah, I'll give it a shot.

[Fursona Lore/ Mild Existential Horror presented in charmingly primitive MS Paint style under the cut]

2

[At the top of the panel there is the label "conceptual space (currently being created. The middle is labeled "THE UNIVERSE, REALITY (the other)". The bottom is labeled "CONSCIOUSNESS, REFLECTION (the self). The very bottom of the panel reads "OTHER, FREAKIER BUT LESS IMPORTANT STUFF" ]

To keep it brief, a person is when a certain amount of consciousness slips upwards into reality. Consciousness is, like the laws of thermo dynamics [sic], a fundamental property of the universe.

3

I'm sure you've heard of the sticking-a-pencil-through-paper metaphor for theoretical wormhole travel, right? Staying within that visual metaphor, imagine the moisture in the air around that "piece of paper" as what consciousness is. It creates tiny, imperceivable changes in the surface and makeup of the paper. Imagine a microscopic rain cloud making a tiny fraction of the paper a little bit soggy. That's what you are in the universe. A tiny soggy fraction of a massive piece of paper. (That's why you feel so small btw).

Of course, putting it into that metaphor IS greatly simplifying it, since in real life things like time and space sorta overlap, ya know? Because they're entirely separate dimensions of measurement. Consciousness is the same, it is everywhere in the universe all at once, but only after it seeps in from a place that is exactly where we are, but elsewhere. 4D stuff is complicated sorry if that's not super clear ha ha.

4

Normal people happen when a bunch of that stray potential-consciousness starts stacking more and more layers of reality on top of itself. Sort of like those pastries that you fold butter into and then fold it like 10 times and that makes it so theres like a billion layers of butter and dough and butter and dough and butter and dough and on and on and on. But with, uh. The other stuff. Consiousness and matter from the universe.

Speaking semantically, that's all the little tiny organisms that work really hard to make you alive. Like the biome in your gut, or the bacteria in your tissue and blood cells. Look it up, 43% of the human body is made of bacteria. Like, that's just on google.

Anyway, all their effort culminates in an increasingly complex meat shell that constitutes a person.

5

For the sake of practicality, we can imagine the way consciousness "seeps in" to the universe is like heat coming off the sun. The two overlapping infinite planes radiate into each other like heat radiates off the sun.

That clear? Heat from the sun. Remember that, it's important for the next part.

6

I'm sort of like a solar flare.

My consciousness, in its raw form, was so concentrated that it was like a tiny shooting star straight from the source.

Also kind of like a kidney stone, I guess.

7

Since my consciousness (which, to be clear, is approximately the same "amount" of consciouessness as anyone else, just all smooshed together into a single clump) is smooshed together into a single clump, the shell forms naturally as "reality" settles onto it. The "shape" the consciousness takes is basically the same as your body or anyone else's since the framework of both entities are the "same" on the "outside". Thus the "shells" turn out "similar" too.

Sorry for all the quotation marks, it's hard to talk about concepts outside of the third dimension in third dimensional terms, and like. I also am not super sure about this stuff either. I'm only relaying what I've learned from the scientists but some of it goes over my head.

I like to think I'm clever but like. I'm not a genius.

8

So here's the part where me and you are different: When your shell breaks apart (when you die) it's because the consciouessness had been escaping your shell, like air from a balloon, and the physical structure can't support itself anymore. Or, like, maybe you just fall over and hit your head on the concrete one day and pop the balloon all together.

Either way, the consciousness escapes from the pressure, and either goes back "down" where it came from, or goes upward into conceptual space, which is sorta being constituted through forces exerted in the physical universe. Well, I mean, really it's more of a product of a reaction between consciousness and physical space. Whatever I'm getting off topic.

The point is the shell breaks cuz the balloon pops. I think that was my point.

9

Now that you get all that, you can probably deduce on your own how and why I'm able to keep "coming back".

It's cuz I'm not really "coming back", I'm still here! The shell representing me here was just lost.

10

And while the facade may not look precisely the same every single time...

11

I remain the same.

[apas-95]

I want you to take this as politely as possible, I genuinely mean no criticism

I understand that siding with Imperial Core ‘Leftist’ Progressives is painful, but I think that if we want to make any real progress for Palestine, we’re going to have to unfortunately suck it up and hold our noses

I do also think that it’s a good idea to try and alienate them as little as possible, to try and sway them over to actual leftist thought

My worry is that by continuing to hurt their feelings, however deserved it may be, we’re going end up with dozens of people thinking ‘Marxism bad, the online ones were mean to me :(‘

I don’t know, I just wanted to hear your opinion, maybe my way of thinking isn’t working here

Unite with real friends to fight real enemies - alliances should be made on the basis of common concrete goals in the concrete situation, not on the basis of any sort of theoretical agreement or disagreement over principles.

In our practice as communists, if we share a common interest with non-Marxist groups, we will happily work together towards that common interest. A national united front against imperialist invasion, for instance, is carried out arm in arm with the national borgeoisie. On the other hand, those same bourgeois organs become real enemies once they and ourselves inevitably come into conflict. Should a 'left' group that supposes to work towards the same aims as ourselves actually be hindering our goals, actually be behaving in a reactionary manner, we would similarly come into conflict with them.

Crucially, here, we must make two points: firstly, this is a matter of practice. This is relevant to the actual practice of a proletarian class organ, a proletarian vanguard party - there is no such thing as individual practice or individual policy, and, outside the context or an organised revolutionary party, all discussion is immaterial. Secondly, our theoretical understanding must never be sacrificed for the sake of temporary alliances. Even during an alliance, we can never cease our critique of our class enemies, we can never abandon our line. If we make a united front with the national bourgeoisie against imperialist invasion, we cannot for even a moment abandon the workers those bourgeoisie exploit, or we completely lose the basis of our strength, which is our genuine representation of the interests of the workers and revolutionary masses.

To be short: we only care about concrete, material reasons for any alliance; we never abandon our own line for the sake of others; and the actions of individual, disorganised people have no meaningful effect, politically. If there is a common enemy, communist parties will eagerly ally with non-Marxist progressives, but will not pretend they are anything other than what they are - and random people posting online aren't a political force in and of themselves, and their personal 'alliances' don't matter.

[drferox]

Monoclonal Antibodies

So I listened to a talk from a drug rep the other day who came into the clinic to promote Cytopoint, the anti-allergy injection for dogs.

It’s a great drug, overall. Super useful for many, literally life changing for a few, and now a mainstay of the allergy treatments we offer. But I had to laugh at something the rep said:

“It’s not really a drug. It’s a bio-mimicry molecule! It’s replicating normal molecules that would be found in the body and just providing more of them!”

And I’m sitting here thinking: that is still totally a drug. A drug is any substance which when given to a living organism produces a physiological effect. 10mg of lokivetmab is most definitely a drug.

But if you are going to argue that Cytopoint is not a drug because it mimics a natural molecule found in the body, then by that logic neither are insulin, thyroxine, cortisone or just about every single hormone.

For goodness sake. I have to wonder what planet marketers live on some days.

We also had a bit of a debate because we’re widely told that Cytopoint shouldn’t have any side effects. Partly this is because monoclonal antibodies aren’t well known in veterinary medicine and they haven’t been around that long.

They’re certainly much safer than the equivalent drugs in other classes, but they’re not ‘side effect free’. They’re a protein, so it’s theoretically possible to be allergic to it. Like the Kesimpta I take it seems likely that some dogs will be ‘off colour’ for a day or so. The most common side effect is being quiet the next say, so it is pretty mild for a typical dog and still worth it. But it’s not zero.

Having a headache for a day is much milder than having acute kidney failure, but I wonder if we’ll get more reports in the future of extremely sporadic weird side effects as we gain more experience with this class of medication.

Medical advancements are wonderful and exciting. But don’t let marketers do all the talking!

And remember to report side effects to the manufacturer.

[suzukiblu]

Day twenty-four of fic NaNoWriMo, obligatory sugar daddy Tim/sugar baby Kon.

“I’d say maybe a picnic in the park or something but that seems incredibly dangerous unless I can pre-verify that Ivy’s in Arkham,” Tim muses, smacking a few more goons upside the skull. The others are already scattering to bolt, and there’s not much point in chasing them down; they broke up the deal and sent the suppliers running, and that was the main concern. Now they can track down their source and go from there. “And even then it’s kinda fifty-fifty.” 

“Yeah, you never know what she’s left out there,” Dick agrees. “Plus sometimes the things she’s left out there cross-pollinate, and then no one knows what’s out there, including her.” 

“Don’t remind me,” Tim says with a grimace, having unpleasant flashbacks to the skunkweed thorns and pitcher plant trees. Ivy’s creative enough without any accidental cross-pollination happening. 

“So what does planning a date have to do with that YJ-related op?” Dick inquires casually as the last of the grunts either hit the ground or flee. Tim does not freeze, because he's not fucking new here. 

“Nothing,” he lies. “I’m cycling through the projects I have scheduled to work on this week. Next there’s a stakeout uptown and some reoptimization of my utility belt organization.” 

“Planning dates is in the same category as ops and stakeouts and equipment maintenance, huh?” Dick asks with a laugh, holstering his sticks and then reaching over to ruffle his hair. “Never change, baby bird.” 

Tim is absolutely going to, but again, hopefully not before thirty and ideally while bringing Dick along for the ride. Dick would be a terrible supervillain and also probably pout if Tim put Superman in a kryptonite death trap to sit and think about what he’s done, but Tim loves him and wants him to be happy and also wants to make this awful fucking world a better place, and you don’t do that by just ditching all your friends and co-workers; you plan ahead and work with them, flaws and all. 

Anyway, Barbara would be good at being a supervillain, and she’d be a lot likelier to come along for the ride if Dick did. So that’s also another reason to recruit him. 

They’d both probably like to kill the Joker, anyway. Maybe they could make the rusty crowbar and shrapnel bomb plan a group activity? That’d be nice. 

Look, Batman doesn’t kill, obviously, but Tim isn’t Batman, Dick and Babs are also not Batman, and none of them ever intend to be. So “Batman doesn’t kill” is, in fact, only Bruce’s problem. 

“So I know you’re going to laugh at me for this, but you know the circus is in town next week, right?” Dick says, sparing him a smirk. Tim considers tripping him with his bo staff. “You know, for this totally theoretical and generic one-size-fits-all date that you definitely don’t have anyone in mind for.” 

“While I appreciate the suggestion, the person I don’t have anything in mind for has terrible self-esteem and I promised her someplace ‘nice’ for this totally theoretical and generic one-size-fits-all date,” Tim says, because he is definitely still in the closet here and he is not giving a Bat the clue of saying “they” to obfuscate Kon’s gender. Might as well light the Bat signal with a pride flag filter over it, for fuck’s sake. “She might take fifteen-dollar tickets and sawdust floors the wrong way.” 

“That just means she lacks taste, baby bird,” Dick hums easily, putting his hands on his hips and tapping a foot in consideration. “Hm. Well, Zatanna also happens to be in town next week.” 

Tim considers what it’d do to his self-esteem to watch Kon spend an hour-long show drooling over a gorgeous older woman in fishnets, spanks, and a sexy tuxedo jacket and decides not to go there. Also, there’s the issue of Zatanna potentially recognizing him, and also potentially recognizing Kon, who he doesn’t think she’s ever met but is both terrible at secret identities and a teen heartthrob superhero whose face is all over the place and also looks exactly like Superman’s on top of that. And Zatanna has definitely met Superman.

So yeah, that seems unlikely to end well either way. 

“Maybe,” he says, finally retracting his staff and putting it away. “I don’t know if she likes going to any kind of shows, honestly. Like–I just don’t know her that well yet. Theoretically, obviously.” 

“Obviously,” Dick agrees with a laugh, pulling out his grappling gun and wagging it at him. “Race you back to the Cave? Winner gets tips on how to charm a totally normal civilian who definitely doesn’t fight crime in a cheerleader skirt.” 

Tim has no idea how he feels about the fact Dick is so certain Cissie is the one he’s trying to plan a date for. Then again, Cissie is the one who yelled at half the Justice League. So maybe he sort of understands the assumption. 

Kon looks better in a crop top, though, Tim privately promises himself to never actually say out loud. Like, he definitely does look better, in Tim’s opinion, but a) Cissie would shoot him for said opinion and b) Kon would be unbearably smug about said opinion. And unfortunately, Tim finds Kon’s preening smugness increasingly charming, so he really can’t be doing that to himself. 

He was so damn proud of himself about the fucking crop top, the bastard. Tim should burn it. Or buy him twenty more. One or the other. 

The shorts he’s just not going to think about right now. Like. Ever again. 

He’s pretty sure they’d work better with a thong than boxer briefs, though. Or just going commando outright, maybe. Tactile telekinesis probably makes chafing less of a concern, Tim figures. 

Not that he’s thought about that. At all. In any way. Ever. 

Definitely not. 

Dick fires his grapple and takes off. Tim pretends to be extremely heterosexual about Cissie and not even slightly gay about Kon, though he has very little idea how to actually do that, and rushes after him. There’s basically no way he’s actually going to beat Dick unless criminal activity interferes or Dick just lets him beat him, of course, because Dick’s been flying all his life and flying in specifically Gotham since he was literally prepubescent, and Tim has just been sneaking around random rooftops and alleyways and only actually known how to do a basic somersault for a couple of years, much less any real acrobatics or aerial work. So like, there’s definitely a skill gap there. 

Might as well chuck a flying fish at a hummingbird and see who comes out ahead, really. 

Technically, though, Dick mostly works out of Bludhaven these days, so technically . . . 

Look, Tim just so happens to know about certain construction-related shortcuts that may or may not be currently relevant thanks to some surprise rogue attacks last week, and even if he weren’t pretending to be heterosexual about Cissie he’d be trying to beat Dick back to get first dibs on Alfred’s jaffa cakes, so . . . 

The jaffa cakes are delicious, though the dating advice is unfortunately irrelevant. 

Tim appreciates the thought, at least.

[ghelgheli]

In the 1860s, when he consciously distanced himself from his earlier technocratic productivism, Marx was compelled to rethink his optimistic view of history and to reflect more seriously upon its negative implications. This self-critical reflection took place as he investigated the material aspect of the production process unique to capitalist production, especially how material world — human and non-human — is reorganized by capital's initiative in favour of its own accumulation. This is because the increase of productive forces subordinate workers to command of capital more effectively. If so, 'relations of production' and 'productive forces' cannot be simply separated as assumed in the traditional view of historical materialism. The development of productive forces of capital is dependent upon the thorough reorganization of human metabolism with nature in the form of cooperation, division of labour and machinery. In this sense, the 'mode of production' expresses a particular social arrangement of the material elements of production. That is why in the preface to Capital, Marx set himself the task of examining 'the capitalist mode of production, and the relations of production... that correspond to it' instead of treating 'productive forces' as an independent variable as was the case in the preface to A Contribution.

This change concerning the 'mode of production' might be discounted as a minor philological quibble, but its theoretical significance should not be underestimated because it has to do with the transformation of Marx's vision of post-capitalism. When the development of productive forces is not purely formal and quantitative, but is deeply rooted into the transformation and reorganization of the labour process, one can no longer assume that a socialist revolution could simply replace the relations of production with other ones after reaching a certain level of productive forces. Since the 'productive forces of capital' that emerge through the real subsumption are materialized and crystalized in the capitalist mode of production, they disappear together with the capitalist mode of production. In this sense, we need to radically reverse the traditional historical materialist view about the actual relationship between productive forces and relations of production: 'Relations of production determine productive forces' (Tairako 1991).

This is how the establishment of the concepts of 'productive forces of capital' and 'real subsumption' compelled Marx to abandon his earlier formulation of historical materialism in the preface to A Contribution. Since both aspects of Form and Stoff are closely entangled with each other due to the real subsumption of the labour process it is not possible to change one without simultaneously changing the other. This complexity would not occur if the productive forces of capital were simply dependent upon machines. They could be utilized in socialism as before. However, the productive forces developed under capitalism are tightly connected to the uniquely capitalist way of organizing the collaborative, cooperative and other social aspects of labour. If so, the transcendence of the capitalist mode of production must be a much more radical and thoroughgoing one than the mere abolition of private property and exploitation through the re-appropriation of the means of production by the working class. It requires the radical reorganization of the relations of production for the sake of freedom and autonomy among associated producers, so that the productive forces of capital disappear. Otherwise, despotic and ecologically destructive forms of production will continue in post-capitalist society. Yet when the productive forces of capital disappear, the productive forces of social labour are diminished as well.

Kohei Saito, Marx In The Anthropocene

[fairuzfan]

also for the last anon its insane to say that a historical claim from thousands of years ago holds up today, which is why it was fine to organize and then ethnically cleanse the people who had been living there for centuries past the time your own had not. having a connection previous does not fucking entitle you in the present, and it isnt somehow unfair to point out the ridiculousness of this logic! palestinians have been there in OUR modern present. that should be the focus - that a long since past historical claim is being used as justification for genocide. its completely neutral to acknowledge this too, since its. a fucking fact. sorry to yell in your inbox but people oh so politely tiptoeing around this very obvious thing because it will offend ‘liberal zionists’ is getting to me. if you think in anyway this ‘connection’ entitled them to colonialism man do i have some news about the structural instability of your own moral prerogatives.

I mean like at this point who cares about "connection" to the land, you're a colonist. You've given up "connection" (which is like a flimsy work when people have been using it recently) for the sake of imperialism. I guess now I'm stating it outright but like you guys need to define "connection" and what it means to you because I guarantee you that Palestinians have a different definition. otherwise it just is really theoretical and detached from modern politics.

And like again. Palestinian Jewish people exist and have existed. There was no... denial of entry into Palestine for people in a general sense. There was denial of entry of an explicitly colonial project. You cannot say anything about connection in that context. It doesn't matter about whatever you have to say about religious connection or ethnic ties or just whatever. Israel cannot exist. Should not exist. Whatever reason you provide is secondary to the fact that it first and foremost is a colonial project intent on homogenizing people and erasing others for the sake of USAmerican interests and nothing else.

People just really are ridiculous in their claims of "connection" at this point. What the hell do you think indigeniety is. I really don't care about your perceived ties to a land when people are expelled and murdered for you to solidify those ties.

[canmom]

i probably would call myself a consequentialist, but not a utilitarian. my objection to utilitarianism is similar to my objection to the absolutist Bayesianism practiced in That Subculture: it's a philosophy that claims to be based around a certain computation, but actually performing that computation is completely intractable. there's no way to actually update your probability assignments of all possible statements in response to new information, any more than it's possible to aggregate the total happiness/suffering/whatever across the entire future for each imaginable course of action.

so this calculation is entirely notional. what you're actually doing is coming up with verbal arguments and vague heuristics for how you think this notional calculation would work. perhaps it's as good an entry point as any. but the supposed mathematical rigour is just rhetoric! you can talk about utilons this and QALYs that, but there is no way to calculate this shit, it's just a mathematical coat of paint.

the second objection is the 'seeing like a state' objection (or seeing like a company/NGO): the 'utility function' is a construct used to make economic models. it doesn't model humans particularly well, who have a variety of competing impulses that don't lend themselves to nice formalisms. and to demand that you should live according to a utility function is accordingly to strip the world of its complexity to make it more tractable. instead of specific people with specific desires and needs and relationships into which you fit, which aren't necessarily commensurable, you have abstract fungible units of pleasure or suffering or whatever else you're trying to optimise.

this worldview appealed to me as a teenager. I imagined that you could model an agent as a some kind of surface between it and the world - a sphere, perhaps, inside your head; the course of your life would be the movement of particles in and out of this sphere, and theoretically there would be a pattern for every instant of time that would lead to the best possible impact on the world, solving 'life' much like a tool assisted speedrun solves a game. the goal would be then to approximate this optimal run as much as possible. then I'd think of problems with this model: couldn't you just spawn high energy photons on the sphere to melt shit like a laser? we'd have to put some restrictions on it, obviously. what if the optimal run was really close to a harmful run, so a small mistake would lead to disaster? perhaps you'd be better to find a stable local maximum instead. and so on.

I'm not sure what good it did me to imagine this funny (or if you prefer, terminally STEM-brained) thought experiment, but it was very nice and mathematical-looking, and back then I really wanted my philosophy to be impossibly demanding for some reason. some weird combo of depression and autism and a self image very much dependent on being told i was good?

these days my feeling is that the pretense of mathematical rigour where it doesn't exist is untrustworthy, and particularly where people are concerned, abstracting too much loses important information. I'm not a court of law where strict consistency matters for the sake of stability or whatever, nor a government trying to figure out which levers to pull to create the ideal society - I'm an organism embedded in a bewilderingly complex system, and I can take each situation as it comes. treating the people I interact with well is important to me. I still sometimes think along utilitarianish lines sometimes - particularly 'this person could use this money more than me' - but I make no pretense to rigour or optimisation with it.

[sepublic]

Looking back the writing of s2p2 was pretty good, even if the actual tournament itself… wasn’t.

Like it was kind of alright tbh; But the new elements just felt too silly and esoteric to take seriously, some didn’t even get proper introductions. And most of the fighters were just kinda there; They had no personality or names and were introduced and resolved so briefly in a montage, for the sake of giving their powers to actual characters we cared about. The way the fights were organized felt lopsided and there was no real pacing to it.

In S4 it felt like every battle mattered, every master played a role in the story, even if it was brief. They all got defeated onscreen, save for Tox who had the setup to be actually relevant this time because they gave her a new design! Only for Tox to still be Tox, and in fact most of the fighters were Tox outside of having onscreen defeats.

The Elemental Masters in this season should theoretically be more fun because they’re not just another set of humans. But I realized that most of them have nothing in their designs to really point towards their element. S4 establishes all of the fighters right off the bat, so we can keep track of the progress as each gets taken down, and there’s actual pacing and stakes to the fighters being dwindled. But in DR, that doesn’t happen and some of them are revealed in the same brief cutscene where they get taken out, so it’s hard to tell where we’re at and it’s harder to appreciate.

I do appreciate the gimmick of combining powers, that was a lot of fun and helped justify a second go at the tournament arc by making it different. Plus the final villain actually having all of the powers, whereas with Chen he only briefly used this against Lloyd before becoming another Anacondrai fake in a sea of Anacondrai fakes. But man the Tournament of the Sources was not it, the uniforms made some fighters look less interesting, and there was a lot of guests for some reason.

In the end, the Tournament of the Sources just made me think; Not only was the prior tournament much better and actually interesting, but this lesser version is taking time and attention away from pre-established story elements that could’ve had more focus. I’m always fine if what I wanted/expected is sidelined for something different yet equally compelling in its own way. But this wasn’t what happened, for most of s2p2 at least.

[talkintomytv]

I've never played LoL but have always been curious! I absolutely adore the world and the characters. Arcane Season 1 inspired me to read up on as much lore as I possibly could before Season 2 so the whole "Herold of the Arcane," change with Viktor really bums me out. Maybe I'll warm up to it but for now, I think what hurts the most was reading all those stories and bios, appreciating all the character art, and thinking oh I cannot WAIT to see them get to this! Even with his Arcane transformation into a cosmic horror being, I was always thinking this is so cool! How, through all of this, will he become a cyborg man? Oh. Never Mind.

I dunno! Herold of the Arcane just does not have the same ring to it as The Machine Herold did and I get that drive for change is technically in character for him so theoretically you can change anything you want about the character and argue it's just how his mind works but changing his core story mechanic from science and ingenuity to magical multiversal time and space... It's as though they were hired to adapt Moon Knight to the silver screen, but they decided to change the source of his power and call him Sun Priest instead.

I guess I just assumed the game would be the source material to inform the show and not the other way around but could you imagine if all comic books that movies are based on were discontinued, your purchased copies confiscated so you could be issued a re-illustrated version that is a more accurate recreation of the films? That'd be messed up!

It always made sense to me that Viktor would become bigger and stronger in stature like his video game counterpart the more he augmented himself with robot parts. Changing his story to be a more fluid and organic form of evolution is the complete opposite of what he is all about.

Rewriteing certain aspects of a character's story gives the creative team a lot of freedom to craft really cool stuff but so far all I see are the cracks starting to show. This inspires more caution than optimism in me when looking forward to whatever comes next in fear they're gonna come for all my favorite things in other champions like Warwick... They kind of already have with Act 3 but I hold out hope there is still more to come for these characters in upcoming projects that's a bit too early for them to talk about and they only made these changes for immersion's sake for the story as it is presently.

[alpinelogy]

Mutuals only, I have about three spare copies of each of the graphics that I got printed at 5 x 7 inches size, so theoretically if any of y’all would be interested lmk. I’ve looked into it, it would be sent as a normal letter in a B4 envelope tho I’d reinforce it with cardboard or chipboard to try and prevent any bending and I’m willing to eat the postage costs.

First come first serve for the sake of organization, no limit to the amount but please be courteous to everyone haha, most of yall are mutuals as well :DD

Non mutuals (and people who would like better quality ones and would not mind paying) I am running an interest check for potentially opening preorders for a small scale print run of my graphics

(Alternatively for those mutuals who live in the same city as me — you know who you are — and are down to meet up I’m free for the last week of July and first week of August so we can arrange something :3c)

[read-marx-and-lenin]

If someone identifies as a leftist and is not willing to die and/or kill for the cause, does that make them not a leftist?

Okay, let's try to break this down.

"Leftist" is nothing more than a vague political position. It's possible to "identify as a leftist" and be all sorts of contradictory things. It doesn't mean much. For the sake of this answer, let's limit this to "revolutionary communist" instead, as it's more relevant to my blog.

Let's start with "unwilling to kill". In the strongest sense, this could mean a moral pacifist who is unwilling to engage in violence even in self-defense. Could this person still be a revolutionary communist? Theoretically, yes, but historically pacifist communes who refuse to take up arms have not fared well. An unwillingness to defend oneself if it means engaging in violence is simply a bad strategy for survival, let alone revolution.

Now, if "unwilling to kill" means "unwilling to murder", if you are morally against assassinations and executions but not against armed resistance, then that's more reasonable. Certainly there have been many such events in the history of communism, however that doesn't mean there were no alternatives. I'm against the death penalty myself, even if I still defend those revolutionary states and organizations that have executed people. And I'm not going to mourn Mussolini or the Tzar just because I believe execution is unnecessary.

Finally, if "unwilling to kill" just means "I don't want to be a soldier myself", then there's plenty of ways you can be a revolutionary without being a soldier. The revolution is not built with guns alone.

As for "unwilling to die", then that also depends on what you mean. If it's again just that you can't or don't want to be a soldier, then that doesn't mean there's nothing else you can do. An army needs more than soldiers. But if it's "unwilling to participate during times of crisis" then that's a lot more severe. If at the first sign of trouble you'd rather run away or defect out of fear, then it's best for you not to join at all. Not everyone has to be a revolutionary in the first place. As long as you're not a counter-revolutionary, as long as you're not getting in the way or actively opposing the revolution, then I don't think anyone would judge you for just being a regular civilian. There's always been plenty of those in every revolution, even if many of them had found it necessary to take up arms eventually.

Ultimately, nobody wakes up one day and goes "boy I sure would love to kill and/or die for the cause!" That's something that happens as a result of the oppression and destruction brought upon us by capitalists and imperialists. Resistance is not a matter of what you choose, it's something you do because you have no other choice. The capitalists and imperialists have the choice to stop oppressing us if they really wanted to. But why would they if we didn't resist them?

[reds-skull]

please infodump about the cyberknights au🥺

Well if not one but TWO people give me permission I guess I have to haha

(Seriously tho thank you so much T_T)

All of this can be changed by the time I get to start writing it, so fair warning lol

So last time I really talked about cyberknights I mentioned their world is basically a theoretical future where operation Deadbolt failed (deadbolt being the op to contain the aether/zombie outbreak to Urzikstan in MWZ), around 70 years after the initial outbreak.

Cyberknights is a temporary name for the Knighthood, the organization that is in charge of keeping the aether as far away from the remaining human cities as they can.

I think it will be an international organization, made possible by the aether tears and teleporters (can't remember the official name rn).

What I was thinking about more recently is, that maybe the Knighthood are a separate entity from the state they're from. That is why they can work internationally despite some countries having political tensions between each other.

I was replaying Dishonored (my favorite game <333) and really paying attention to the interactions between the Overseers and the City Watch.

[brief explanation on those if you've never played Dishonored: There are two main peacekeepers in the city of Dunwall, where the game takes place, the City Watch, who are basically policemen following rules made by the parliament, and the Overseers, who are religious officers that follow the Abbey of the Everyman and the high overseer (comparable to the pope in our world I suppose). These two groups have tensions between them in-game, but they're often working together.]

Inspired by the Overseers, I wanted to have the Knighthood be more religious, making the aether a sort of religion by itself. To combine science and the supernatural. Maybe the aether is seen as a curse, and those who often come into contact with it are seen as tainted. The knights do a work no one else wants to do, they sacrifice their own good for the sake of the rest of the population.

The knights are more religious than the general population, prayers and rituals part of their every day life. Their religion isn't just followed by them, but by many outside the Knighthood, but none are as devoted as them.

I think knights would begin training very early in life. If a child has a strong constitution, their parents can consider sending them to the Knighthood. They're likely to never see the child again, so they receive goods from the state for their sacrifice.

The child will be trained in combat, taught how to cleanse aether contamination and use aether tears, and basic mechanic knowledge to work with the technology they're given. After they're deemed ready, they will go on their first mission along with a team, and if they survive they will officially be knighted.

In this structure, the knights won't have much contact with the outside world, and form tightly-knit groups.

The exception to this is Soap, who originally was raised in what used to be Scotland (don't have a name for it yet...), but was moved to the British order after his injury. His accent and mannerisms differ noticeably from the rest of the knights.

Sidenote on the tech they use, I think it will be quite similar to what their equivalent of a military has, except the knights purposely model their armor to be in the image of the original knights. The cyberknights admire the original knights, and in their eyes they continue their legacy of fighting monsters. As they fought dragons, they fight aether worms.

The military sends tech for the knights if they find it will be useful for them, as everyone relays on the knights to hold back the aether. A lot of people question the continued need for the Knighthoods, asking why so many resources need to be wasted on them, but those who know what they do understand that without them, humanity will collapse again.

The newest invention of the military was G.H.O.S.T, a fully functioning robot to aid the knights. G.H.O.S.T is experimental at the start of the story, the first of its kind in any combat situation. Many knights distrust G.H.O.S.T's presence, but the 141 squad learns he's not quite like a real soldier.

Part of why the Knighthood doesn't quite like G.H.O.S.T is because his body works with aether. G.H.O.S.T is able to use field upgrades just like a knight, and his weapons are infused with the same process their's do. Those processes are considered blasphemy for anyone whose not a knight, but the Knighthood assures them G.H.O.S.T's creation wasn't.

I want to design banners for each Knighthood and incorporate them to the outfits for each member respectively. Like imagine having Soap marked by his original Scottish Knighthood, while Gaz and Price have a British banner, with G.H.O.S.T having none since he was never technically knighted. I think that would be really cool.

For the story, I think there will be a lot of knights we will see in temporary collaborations, since the knights aren't limited by physical distance or country of origin. So I'd like to design knight armor for Rudy and Alejandro, and Farah and Alex. Also considering adding Roach for the first time since I will need a lot of characters.

Besides knights, there are also mechanics and aether experts in their base of operation (don't have a name for it yet either), trainers for the children that weren't knighted yet, and of course the amount of people that takes to maintain such large amount of people, like cooks, cleaners, etc. and I want some of those to be characters from canon because it's more fun than inventing people I guess.

As to what the knights do when they go out to the contaminated lands, a lot of their work consists of destroying aether nests, collecting crystals to replenish their supplies, fighting disciples that attract zombies towards human cities. Very rarely, they would fight monsters like an aether worm, if they find it poses a risk.

The knights are always working against the clock, trying to outrun the never-ending storms that ravage through those lands. Getting stuck in a storm often means death for them, as it depletes their aether supply faster than they can replenish it. Aether is fuel for a knight's suit, which powers their weapons and motorcycles (which look like horses and can actually respond to voice commands), but it also makes sure their filtration masks work. Every inch of a knight is covered for a reason - the air in the contaminated lands is toxic for humans.

If knights enter storms, their stay only lasts mere minutes, but if they stay far enough they could last days before returning to the Knighthood's base. Over the years, knights have built shelters in places they frequent, and it is tradition to leave one thing behind if a knight comes across one and uses it. Those shelters have food and water, as well as charging stations.

Knights almost never go out alone, usually having a team of 2–3 people, depending on their task. Like I've explained before, a full team of knights consists of a combat expert, a mechanic expert and an aether expert. A combat expert is always needed, but the mechanic and aether can switch out if the job doesn't require them.

The 141 has four members, with two being combat experts, so they can often split into two teams, and that's why Soap and G.H.O.S.T end up alone in the start of the story.

Out of the three jobs, a mechanic is the least likely to expect combat, and is the least useful. They're still very important, you wouldn't want to be stuck in the contaminated lands with a broken helmet or bike, but aether-mechanic lifeforms are weaker than native aether forms.

[non-native aether lifeforms include regular zombies and mechanic-aether lifeforms, while native aether lifeforms include disciples and aether worms.]

It's for that reason Soap was demoted from combat expert to mechanic after his injury. Initially, he was to be removed from entering the contaminated lands altogether, but after practically begging, he was allowed back. He hates leaving the combat role behind, but because he's got a few loose screws he still acts like he is.

Field upgrades (I'll probably change their name to something cooler in the future tbh) allow knights to use aether to their advantage. They range from healing to hiding the user from the eyes of aether lifeforms, and use up a lot of aether so they're best used in combat only. While in combat, aether is collected from the blood that comes into contact with the various blades of the knights, and because regular zombies are easy to kill it's a good source of energy.

Soap's field upgrade, Frenzied Guard, is usually reserved for combat experts only. It makes it so the user builds up a sort of coating that protects them the more they slay, but at the cost of having every aether lifeform aggravated and focused on them. Field Upgrades can be changed with the right ritual, but Soap refused to do so.

Frenzied Guard actually helps Soap's leg injury not affect him while he's using the upgrade, but at the cost of making him collapse right after it runs out. He doesn't use it often as a result, and is actively discouraged to by his team.

I still need to work out what happened 70 years prior to the start of the story, exactly how much civilization collapsed because of the aether, as well as how are countries now operating, what even their names are... How people react to the Knighthoods. There are a lot of interesting ways I could make the dynamics of the knights and the military go, currently I'm leaning into mutual distrust...

And of course there's G.H.O.S.T's mystery... which I won't reveal here but oh boy if there's not a lot I could do with it...

I feel like this AU burrowed in my brain more than even rev AU because its world isn't ours, so I can world build so much more. I'll admit working within canon restrictions is interesting, leads me to decide things I wouldn't usually think to do if I was left to my own devices, but cyberknights AU is far more of my bread and butter. Before getting struck by COD brainrot I would only work of things that are related to either fantasy or sci-fi (which includes superheroes and supernatural entities in my eyes), things that rely heavily on worldbuilding as they often don't take place in our reality. Overthinking everything is part of the job in those genres haha. So I'm very much enjoying myself thinking about all of this, as you probably can tell by the length of this post...

I also still need to continue my research into Scottish mythology and knight orders from medieval Britain and Scotland (the Scots didn't really have the same vibes as British knights but it's still interesting to look into). I'm currently reading a translation of one of the stories allegedly written by that medieval John M'Tavish and it takes far longer than a modern story would because they use high level words that I never heard of, and English isn't my first language by far so I need to sit with a dictionary and reread the same sentence three times sometimes to understand it lol... but this was the case with the Exeter book as well and I read like 20 poems and riddles from that book for BLOOD||HUNGER so it's not like that's new.

How do I tell people I got into medieval poetry because of a fucking COD fic.....

[titleknown]

...On the voting discourse going on, I have a few thoughts I may as well articulate.

Like, firstly... witholding votes as a way of "punishing" the Dems or getting people to engage with alternate political systems hasn't worked. Like, ever.

If anything they've seen it as carte-blanche to go further right while ignoring the reasons why their "base" is disengaging due to the awful Skeksis running the party.

Granted an organized "boycott" of the Dems could theoretically work, but if we had an org powerful enough to do that (Which we don't at the moment), we could probably spend our time way more productively in other ways.

Like, I do not get why we think that "vote shaming" will work for us when it works for the Dems...

...But that's not to say I have many nice things to say about the whole "Vote for the lesser evil" dynamic either. Because "telling people not to vote doesn't work" and "telling people to vote for the lesser evil doesn't work" are statements that can very much coexist!

Like, even beyond the burnout as things still keep getting worse, there's people who the US state has never done a decent thing for, and of course people who's families overseas Biden is currently paying for the bombing thereof.

Like,from talking to them, the "read Settlers" sort of leftists often have very good reasons from their personal lives for being as pessimistic about voting's capacity to change things as they are. Especially those who're marginalized and living in the South, they have every right to be disillusioned and angry with the society of the racist; bigoted monsters they're surrounded by.

To hold that wonkish realpolitik "hold your nose" as a cudgel those people is not only more than a little ghoulish, but more relevantly ineffective. You're not going to get past trauma with Facts and Logic (TM)

Like, for all that Trump's Project 2025 is fucking terrifying and (full disclosure) I think voting for the sake of avoiding that is warranted, I also think vote-shaming to that end is also Not Helping, and we're going to need to put our organizational energy elsewhere if we want to get out of the deathloop of voting for DemSkex or RepubliSkex.

Like, relating to @mostlysignssomeportents idea of activism, if activism is an ant moving forward on its legs against the flood, and one of the legs can't go any further, they should probably try to find where the other legs can go without the other one going into the drink.

So, fuck "Vote Blue, no matter who," or "Fuck voting" it should be "Either way, join the DSA," at least IMO...

[verisimilar-entropy]

Part 3 of whatever: Doodling In the Margins

Word count: 1630

AO3 ->

I have a few other chapters there too

Ava couldn't stand the sound of old cartoons. There was nothing particularly wrong with black and white looney tunes. They were fine during the day, but at night those haunting little tunes drifted along her spine chillingly through the Mucklewane's speakers. They scratched at her mind with every crackle of the hand drawn panels. Filling her with a revulsion.

"Effie, turn off the cartoons. It's creeping me out. Anything but whatever this is, for the love of fucking God." She edged on begging with her wild hair getting pushed messy into a scrunchy.

Immediately it stops.

Switching swiftly to its regular old timey rhythm that became more familiar. Hymns and quartets have never sounded more soothing...

"Given the strange hour we're at now, I won't stress the strain on God's name now. Those old cartoons used to calm my nerves and send me in a fit of giggles as a young lady."

"You and my mother..." Ava mutters tortured, under her breath. "They had television then?"

"It was a luxury of the times. Brand new television set my pa strolled into the dining room when we were able to afford it. Radios but with pictures! That old antennas had to always be twitched around on that staticy old thing out on the farm." Effie recounts fondly of the expensive screen her family rarely spent time to gather around. There was little time even then to fixate on such pointless activities, but even then it must have been nice to gather around with a big farm family during still times for a few laughs.

"Radios were still more for news and gripping tales."

"That checks out... No color for a few decades."

"Not until the forties I'm afraid!" Her cheery voice carried for her own sake. The echo of it fades into the blur of the present towards the foyer of the restaurant. Ava taps the thin cigarette in her fingers against the table top of her corner booth. A habit when she was gearing up to make her way to the front of the diner. That anxious breath picking up. She'd given up on sleeping in favor of writing out her nerves. Ideas weren't flowing with the strange memories worming their way in.

Itching into the scratchy moleskin of her notebook rather than the spiralbound leaflet pages instead.

"So, eh, your mother liked those old toons?" Ava stops tapping her cigarette with pursed lips. Ava bothered to bring it up, the faint ghost of Missouri, or Misery as she fondly puts it mentally, passes, she really didn't care to remember. She really didn't feel like talking about it.

"She was convinced they put me to sleep, but they terrified me into staying silent all night. They're like a terrible trance." Involuntary shudders come about. "I'm going out to smoke a cigarette."

There's a beat of silence beneath the music, a bit of relief. She can almost smell the tobacco burning against her nostrils. Sweet, relieving.

"Take me with you out in the lot, Ava." Her soft drawl grew even gentler than usual. Ava knew the tone. Ava groans, cut off quickly by Effie continuing. "It's been a long evening, for the both of us, we could both use the company, doll..." This theoretical theorist knew well enough Effie struggled from not being able to sleep. Visions and the weight of knowing so much about the diner often kept them both awake at night.

Knowledge and wisdom both have their marks on one's psyche.

Ava sighs, letting the music drift into the open space between her and the radio.

"Fine, let's go." And so she pulls on her pull over; one that was a more green-gray that she definitely didn't grab up from some of Caspar's things when the Teds took him and his wild west adventures took place. He never bothered to ask for it back, so she never saw a reason to return such a shabby looking thing. Clearly he didn't miss it much.

Ava grabs her carton of smokes- lighter than she'd like, a lighter, her notebook to glance over what was written, and the radio safely tucked under her arm carefully before setting herself on her usual spot by the clay planter. Sat on the curb over looking a few meters away into...

Sweet, all consuming, seemingly close to nothingness, endless empty yet full of some much beautiful potential. Entropy. Travel in the process, her little piece of observing the universe's life and slow act and dance through the cosmo's decay-

all at once.

Here she struck the fire against the tip of the cigarette to smoke and create the process of both within her all over again.

The silence was nice, peaceful.

No words except for old timey music by her side in the plant's soil and Leif's own radio blasting nineties metal faintly from the rooftop.

She strains her ears to envision if there's any distant tinkering to be heard. If he was making a call to his Sygian friend. If he were talking to himself through a late night project again, or at all, in general. Anything to distract from her moments of memory. Of the dumb, old shit of what she couldn't control.

Of the old memories that made her angry still. Even after the younger version of her mom told her to get over it. Sure some closure was there, but there was some things that never we quite went away. Some things were like the glue you were stuck with peeling off into pesky pieces, not the satisfying strips.

Her mind snaps back into focus when she hears the sound of a rocking chair. Effie's soft hum, it was gentle over the music that didn't play any lyrics. "You know, Ava." The rocking continues rhythmically, she feels like she's imagining a fire crackle, calming her own nerves.

Did the Mucklewains have a fireplace? Ava wonders to herself.

''In these recent times, I find myself taking to embroidery. Making scenery and tapestry of all the adventures we've seen, a few visions I've had. Places I find beautiful or remember fondly. Have you ever thought of finding something in between to focus on other than the diner?" Ava felt annoyed at first, then it faded towards something else. It wasn't entirely a therapy strategy, it just patronizingly sounds a lot like it.

"In college, I used to play these journaling games. I'd take dice and probability and a deck of playing cards. Instead of studying, sometimes I'd let chance take the wheel and let it do the writing for me before I dove head first into questioning everything."

"You can write stories that way? How?" The rocking slows, the confusion settled in the air. Ava flicks the cigarette ash and takes a long drag.

"Yeah, there's systems like a set of rules for board games out there. Different kinds, I made up my own and storylines, so it was a mix of ideas in my head and something a bit more unpredictable to surprise myself. I'd draw maps and character designs to keep track of it all in the margins of notebooks while I worked on other things. That's how I shit off my mind before smoking cigarettes."

There was stillness between them for a moment. "Wow, dear, I'll be honest. That sounds like of work, but it sounds like it'd make for amazing story ideas unfold. Did you ever write or publish these stories?"

"I...had a few, uh, forums. That'd I'd share my ideas with. I had journal entries that I published at one point." Ava wasn't going to explain the Internet to Effie now. Sucking down her cigarette and trying not to think of the many hours she invested formatting journals into something legible for sharing view.

"Oh, you've published journals? That aren't scientific? I'd love to read something you've written!" Ava pauses and rubs the back of her neck, another long drag. Effie was absolutely giddy at the idea. "If you'd allow me to hear them sometime."

"I'd...have to come up with a new story. I haven't used that system since I lived in a dorm." She didn't sound very certain, but there wasn't much else to do in the diner in between obsessing over the diner and proving everything she knew to be right.

What else did she have if she had nothing left to prove? There was always more, everything was always changing and in motion. The diner was part of a franchise, for fuck's sake! But Effie was right, there had to be one or two extra hobbies. Gloria had her food, Leif had his building junk, Caspar had his annoying bullshit. She wasn't that into the pinball machine they had just gotten, courtesy of David actually going out and getting it.

Ava had her theories. Ideas. She was full of them. And math.

"Yeah, maybe I'll share something. You two play music all the time, maybe it'll cut through the background noise."

"Oh! And it'll be just like when I was a girl listening to my stories on the radio as a girl!" Ava could practically hear Effie kicking her feet. Ava couldn't help the huff of a laugh through her nose, exhaling her smoke, and taking another drag. It was at the brown filter. She tosses it by her feet out of habit and lit another. There were already two below her, she hadn't realized she was out here that long. Thinking. Looking out into oblivion.

"Yeah, Effie, I think you're right. That sounds like a good idea."

Her own voice drifts into the sound of whirling in the motion of the universe. The old chorus music playing coupled with the way the brink of the old dad rock carried into its winds. Caught in the stillness between all these sounds stirring and thoughts settling, drifting by. Ava forgot the notebook in her lap and starts flipping through her notes.

Her free hand going to reach for the pony pencil in her pocket and doodling in the margins.