#I can agree that censoring a bunch of stuff no one really complained about is somewhat silly

[solo-wing-alex]

Looking through Seam reviews for Skullgirls and, uh...

Yeah

[erikahammerschmidt]

Been noicing a certain cycle here, regarding changes in the "acceptability" of various ableist slurs.

I have various forms of neurodivergence, but none that are classified as either intellectual disability or psychosis, which are the subjects of most of the insults I'm talking about here. So I don't feel that it's my place to express any real solid opinion on this.

But I think it's important for someone who's been here a while, and seen this cycle happen before, to at least point it out.

It seems to go like this:

People start getting pretty comfortable using stuff like the R-slur (r----d, the one that references intellectual disability) as a general insult for anything and everything they don't like.

Others get uncomfortable with this and start announcing how this isn't acceptable. These statements may also discourage other slurs that are around the same level of perceived offensiveness, including those aimed at people with psychosis: ps---o, del--u, etc. (I'm censoring all the slurs in this post as best I can. This isn't because I consider them all equal. It's because I don't have a clearly decided opinion on which ones are worst, or feel that it's even really my place to have that opinion.)

People begin to argue that, if those words are unacceptable, then logically any insult based on calling someone low-intelligence or mentally-ill must also be unacceptable. This leads to further thinkpieces on how more and more words should be treated as ableist slurs and avoided completely. This is where a whole bunch of much more common insults enter the fray: st--id, mo--n, id--t, d--b, cr--y, ins--e, and anything else that can be taken as a synonym for any of that.

Some people begin to complain that they are running out of words they can use. Debate begins over which words can be agreed upon as acceptable, if your goal is to criticize someone for making a careless bad decision.

Debate begins over whether such criticism is ever acceptable. Some people will argue that careless bad decisions should be treated sympathetically regardless of whether or not they resulted from a known mental disability, and criticism should be reserved for intentional bad decisions. Debate may even continue into where exactly to draw the line between intentional evil and accidental negligence, or whether either of those can be entirely separated from the possibility of a mental health cause.

People begin, en masse, to give up on the whole argument, and just go on using the words that come most easily to them.

In some cases, those words are the ones that started the cycle in the beginning, and therefore it starts over again at phase 1.

Now, again. I'm not in a position to reclaim any of these slurs, nor do I want to. I'm still trying to figure out for myself what words I personally find comfortable to use-- it has fluctuated over the years, believe me, and is very far from being pinned down comfortably anywhere.

So I do not consider it my business to make a statement on what part of this cycle is the worst, or exactly where it ought to stop.

I'd guess, if there's a way to stop the cycle, it'll probably involve some discussion of why words are offensive-- how it's based on both past and current usage, not just origin or literal meaning-- and how that may form a basis for where to draw a line. But I very much doubt there'll ever be a total consensus on that line-drawing point.

However… I do think, at least, we can mostly agree that it being a cycle is a bad thing?

And so it's probably worth thinking about where it's likely to go, when we see the beginning phases of it starting up again, like they are now.

I don't know. Just a thought. Others can start their own discussions off from here, much better than I can.

[writemyaceattorneys]

Not 🐸anon but i love self aware aus and the possibilites that come to mind...

Imagine phoenix always having to keep his thoughts in check because the player does have direct access to them

Ot maybe perhaps payne simply doesnt exist because edgeworth/whatevee other prksecutor there is depending on the game wants more time to be around them.

In the 3d games perhaps theres a lot more sprites per se since a rig is much easier to manipulate a bunch of pixels and conveys a lot more

Handholding. A lot of handholding.

Phoenix cant be left alone akdhaks curses of being the player POV

A lot more court cases. The games not over yet :)

One of my favourite things about slef aware aus is the yandere lads pulling a giffany and taking the player into their world, or perhaps pulling the opposite and entering their reality. Tbh im not quite sure what'd be next after that but it would be certainly quite the event to go to bed and then see characters in person

I really enjoy reading your stuff! I dont tend to go on anon and ask much but just in case may I be 🌌anon? Cheers ^^

Of course 🌌anon!! (I am typing this so while I see the starry night emoji on my phone, its just a milky way on my laptop and I'm forever terrified that the emojis won't translate haha)

Miles/Klavier/Simon/Nayhuta really just up and delete Payne from the game, none of them even get a look in

good, I hate those guys they are all so annoying

Something else I think might happen is you know at the start of cases they have the cinematic bits to show the crime and sometimes reveal who the killer is, I think that someone would censor those bits, who would is up to anyone's interpretation but whoever it is would do it to try and spare S/O's feelings.

And I completely agree that in the 3D games, characters are just going to up and deviate from their set sprites, it must be quite hard to have to move every single pixel when with 3D rigs, as you say its a lot easier because fluid movements are already made for the sprites.

I think that in the 2D games, each character would be able to force themselves into one deviated sprite, so they'd really have to make those sprites count.

Phoenix would be LIVING the life though, but in the rare occasions where we get perspectives from other characters (for example, Maya in Justice For All or even Mia's case or Edgeworth's perspective in Trials and Tribulations) Phoenix would definitely still interfere where he can, just so S/O doesn't forget that he's there (much to everybody else's disgust of course)

AND AGJGHGHGH MORE CASES YES PLEASE, honestly if the cost of a crap ton more cases to play is being obsessed over by pretty much everybody in the game series I really wouldn't complain too much.

No but the idea of half of the characters showing up one day after climbing out of the console is uh 😳👉👈 yes please

Especially if we are dragging literally every character out, I'm talking faces like younger Mia, Feenie and Bratworth. The interaction with their "older" counterparts would also be absolutely brilliant to be honest.

I have no idea what sort of harem I'm building here oh god 😂😂😂😂

I think characters from later games would heavily protest against S/O being pulled into an earlier game, there'd probably be a situation like in that AA6 DLC Court skit special where characters from earlier games would show up in the 3D games.

I mean if Oldbag can do it to try and get to Edgeworth, half of the Ace Attorney harem can do it to get to S/O. For that reason I think that everybody would have to settle with living in S/O's world, otherwise SOJ Edgeworth is just going to end up banishing any old sprites that come through straight to the shadow realm.

[vanityloves]

🎫 here's a gush pass! feel free to gush about whichever f/o you want, however much you want, then send this ask to 3 other selfshippers!

oh man, thank you jsjsj ive gotten a few of these but ive been too anxious to actually go off ab my f/o but, lets fucking gooooo!

can i talk ab the actual animation of the source material is that allowed?

they gave us this but we ended up with

WHICH LISTEN- I enjoy n love regardless. I just find the contrasts in phases fascinating and funny. I loved his appearance in phases 1 and 2; what a fucking iconic character design. The animation is so endearing and amazing- the thicker lines, the fluidity, the range. Like the first gif that shows the vibrations of the vehicle in his shoulders/shirt? The simplistic art style was nice and even if hes Hard On The Eyes, I'm like 🥴 ok ugly ❤.

Not like the newer mvs are any less quality content - its nice to see the use of thick and thinner lines and there's definitely a different feel to it - more child friendly or easy going? Idk how to explain it. Murdoc as a character is still very, Not Child Friendly, and Im always like :cursed emoji: when someone says that their 14 year old watches their videos like help, his dick is out in at least 3 dif vids (censored ofc but man).

They definitely lost me after the 4th phase though and many people argue that the band/music lost its meaning, which i can honestly agree with (esp when they didnt name officially name 4, 5 and 6. Im p sure ppl refer to 4 as We Are Still Humanz).

I was never an avid/active fan of keeping up with the characters and didnt really think they had any story anyways, i was like "feel good inc is sexy. melancholy hill's a banger" so honestly, finding out that these apes actually have lore was fun.

Murdoc being the given this tragic backstory made my eyes Zoom, and ofc I was like "oh youre funny looking and sad. I want you ♡." In a weird way, I take a lot of comfort that 'we both have shit parents' and 'no one really thought we'd amount to anything'. to be fair, i haven't accomplished anything yet, and even if hes a bunch of pixels who i know doesnt really exist, its kind of motivating bc he never gave up? A literal quote from him being "If there’s a dream in your heart, never let anyone tell you you’ve got no talent. Get out there, embarrass yourself, and prove to the world you’ve got no talent." With how many failures hes faced he never stopped trying to prove himself worthy of attention and fame and love, which is ambitious and kind of intimidating with how much confidnece he has.

Hes a complete bastard of a man and not even close to being a good person. He's definitely complicated but can be boiled down to "just an abusive asshole", which, hey, fair. I hate the way he treats 2D, its so toxic and terrible. Honestly, its inexcusable and he needs to apologize, grow and learn a LOT and god knows he needs therapy.

I think the most tragic thing ab his character is that he basically ended up like his father and to some extent, he acknowledges it. His bad habits and behaviors stem from abuse and neglect which doesnt excuse his actions but, "man hands on misery to man." I feel like theres a haunting part to his whole life - we don't know much about his mother and brother but from assuming things, I know they weren't innocent, clean, or soft spoken, let alone, kind. I think he has a "It runs in the family" mentality and gives into it bc there's no use in running from something so deeply engraved within him.

But as a man of contradiction, hes shown to care, despite "hating everything, including himself". To be short, his father was a failure and a man thats never worked for his own money, so he contradicts that and escapes that part of 'failure running in the family' by forming Gorillaz. I do think theres something way more ab his character in that regard. I think theres a lot that he needs to work on but he's escaped a part of that mindset, and his 'Plastic Beach'. I wonder what theyre gonna do with valley of the pagans thing.

I guess as a band, theyre not gonna show a lot of "behind the scenes" stuff like that. We wont know if he ever gets help, or apologizes, or even feels sorry - its up to us to decide which is a safe game to play on Their Behalf.

People are upset that hes actually cleaned up a bit and is shown to be nicer bc they miss having that disgusting, cruel man which again, I understand. He has always been the antagonist to the entire band. But as someone that likes to see people happier n mellow (or, boring) rather than doing shit and compensating for their depression, its nice to see that type of development (or downgrade, depending on how you see it).

This could be Their (read: jamie and damon) way of being lazy by making him 'mellow out w/ age' or whatever it is. It definitely seems to woobify his character and intentions but well, His Main Goal, Was To Blow Up. And Act Like He Dont Know Nobodaaayyy argargarg and guess what? He's already made it- he's successful, he's rich, he's famous, he's adored. Now what? Maybe this is just his way of taking it easy from here on out - who knows.

Gorillaz definitely took a turn after all the brand deals so it lost its meaning (since one of the phases had a 'fuck capitalism' message) and with that, Murdoc is no longer allowed to be the stank bitch hes was always meant to be, no more obvious sex and drugs, for the new gen 🥴 ironically a lot of songs 'today' are always complained ab being ab sex, drugs, and whatever, but they def needed to step on the breaks when Money/Companies got involved. So here we have The Wigglez 😌💕

ANYWAYS, I LOVE HIM LOTS, HAVING MANY THOUGHTS

[spiritsncrystals]

Misawa :D

What i like about him/don't like about him:

Can we give him kudos for being the only fucking person with enough guts to hold six bloody decks in which he is constantly trying to modulate to be better each time

I like how he's supposed to be the smart kid of the bunch and literally takes being the genius to heart because only three people can connect science or math and dueling him, zweinstein and daitojiki/amanuel i mean literally i mean ok the writers started not giving two shits about him after season 1 but in theory he got a good life, praised for being smart, got to work with a duel scientist and got to live a happy life with his tiger waifu.

What i don't like about him has to be more at fault of the writers, come season two they just decide to mock his existence even going as far as having characters actually go oh right misawa exists which eventually lead to him getting desperate thus why he wanted to join the SoL i mean technically he was one of the few who didn't need to be beaten to get konked outta brainwashing (or did that actually even have a brainwashing effect on him for whatever reason and he just decides yeah I'm gonna stick in)

But man they could've developed him way better (heck even tagforce makes fun of him)

What i like about his design:

Well tbh there's nothing really about him design wise that totally sticks out other than the deck holders he literally has stuck on his inner jacket that kinda looks like dynamite which i think shadyvox's abridged actually even joked at.

I mean when they found him in the spirit dimension i thought he didn't look too bad just neaten the hair and lose the beard and its a decent look.

Do i prefer dub or sub names:

I mean technically the only change from the sub to the dub with his name is that misawa became his surname and that daichi got changed to bastion which kinda sounds posh as fuck ok Harrington Rosewood is worse but that's bc he's supposed to sound like a fancy schmancy

But i call him misawa more.

Favourite card he used:

The guys got six different decks but i suppose I'd say water dragon bc i like how it's literally chemistry but w gas dino's making a giant H20 dragon

Too bad we never saw a fire dragon like the opening hinted to him having

Favourite scene he was in:

Yknow despite all the shunning s2 gave him i think he got a little time to shine in s3, considering he was the one who figured out that zweinstein had meant that Rainbow dragon should fight the phantasms for enough energy to be produced in order to be able to send everyone else back home (yet nobody figured it would mean Johan would have to stay behind, sad indeed) and i mean hey in 148 he actually gave a pretty good explanation to the whole dimensional situation (ok tania helped a bit but he's the genius) and did kinda explain that the haou situation was supposedly yubels doing as well as the whole two sides of the same coin anatomy about judai and haou being connected (i still don't exactly agree with it but it's one of the few things I'm screw the cannon about)

Least favourite scene he was in:

As much as i like him and his relationship with tania i think it was ep36 but the fact that he was so bloody love struck by her that he was in a daze in which he put jam on his omnirice drank wostershire and tobacco sauce without giving the blink of an eye just felt wrong. I mean he wasn't even phased by the tobacco sauce clearly that should've had some effect.

Also i know a lotta people find the absolutely rediculous thing I'm about to mention amusing but

When he FUCKING STRIPPED NAKED AFTER SEEING THE DUEL JUDAI HAD WITH ZWEINSTEIN WAS JUST ODD.

LIKE HE DIDN'T EVEN KEEP HIS PANTS ON i mean luckily he wasn't facing the viewer while he was running so it didn't get gross otherwise pretty sure even the sub would've censored that, haven seen that episode in the dub but I'm assuming that they cut his nakedness bc they didn't want smol kids seeing a naked boy with white hair running about on their TV screens

OTP:

Whitetigershipping: (Misawa x Tania) hey she might be a tiger at heart but as manjoume said after misawa realises he fell in love with a tiger "she was a great woman"

Plus i mean when she came back in s3 guess what he decides to do, stay with her (tbh that's probably one of the most hinted at to be cannon ships i ship other than spiritship from a analytical perspective) i also find it cute how in ep35 she's calling him misa-poo (ok judai dotes on calling him that but that's more bc he doesn't get its supposed to be a affectionate nickname hence why when he duels her he asks call me yuki-poo) and then in ep36 he's calling her tani-poo i think they're the only two characters who have proper affectionate nicknames for each other from a cannon standard (dearest judai n all that stuff doesn't really count tbh)

There is really nothing wrong with loving a tiger woman

Misawa x Asuka - I'm not exactly sure what this is called but i see this only really playing out with the manga personalities, probably because since manjo is a badass in the manga and has no time for crushes on asuka who do they decide to give a crush on asuka? Misawa i mean personally I only own one volume of the manga and have literally read up to just before the other American DA students come over (I'm not exactly fond of the personalities of atleast 3 out of the 5 of them bc obviously edo is one too along with the boys who were the respective champions of the regional Da's so that's pretty much why I've not read further) but I'm sure if they get a chance to full on bond i could see them getting together i mean hey he knows chivalry so that's pretty good

Hornetshipping (Misawa x manjoume) I'm not the biggest hornetshipper but I thought i should probably acknowledge this one plus someone had the funniest misinterpret of the name thinking it was Horneyshipping instead of hornet which is worth a mention (kudos kiga) but in honesty it is a pretty interesting pairing, the genius who solidated the loose streak of the snobby rich ass manjo and the sharp yet less snobby rich kid manjo definitely a curious one

NOTP:

I honestly don't really have one unless people see misawa and regie from the manga as a thing (considering he bested her in the quarterfinals of the tournament where the winner would duel ryo) i just really don't like her so it might be a little biased

OT3:

I'm just gonna give primaryshipping an acknowledgement don't really ship it but kudos for being the only OT3 with misawa i know

Would i fuck marry or kill?:

Sorry but I wouldn't kill him and tania can do the other two taking fuck into its more oof meaning (what they're mature it'll be fine well other than people complaining about a guy fucking a tiger lady)

[relaxandlaughatyourself]

Recap of Dem and Ika’s IG Live January 16, 2019. 

They gave their thoughts on the cbbus2 cast among other things.

They are in the kitchen and said they’re going to stream live from youtube but wanted to come on here first to ask some advice about it. They ask for some advice about what settings to use on the youtube live and such.

They’re not posting a youtube video today so they wanted to do a live instead to appease the youtube people too.

Someone says to name the youtube live “cooking with demika.” Ika: “You know that name has outgrown us, right babe?” Dem: “It has not, I am still quite fond of it.”

“I want the youtube people to stop coming for me and I want them to stop coming for my boyfriend. You won’t get him. Even with your real hair.” Ika says that the youtube people are trying to change her. Dem says to try new things and do a youtube live.

“Dem does the cooking here, especially when I’m sad and can’t do anything.” They say he always do breakfast. Dem says he tried a new technique to cook bacon this morning and it did not work.

Ika: “They always say in the comments ‘stop complaining, you’ll push him away.’ That’s how I got him, ha!” Dem: “Is that how you got me?”

Ika says she shouldn’t do the youtube live now because she’s feeling hateful and they’ll unsubscribe. “I’m gonna undo all your work.”

Ika: “I’m not in a very good mood.” Dem: “I know. But you’re pretty.”

Ika says that they will watch the challenge because of Josh. “People say Demetres should go on the challenge… no, he has a girlfriend, he’s staying home! You’re not allowed to go.” Josh is in the chat, and Ika says he is her favorite, her untouchable number one.

Ika tells Dem to put a book under the computer to prop it up. Dem: “A book? Like I read?!” Ika says he has a lot of real estate books.

They say they recorded a video… “but we couldn’t post it…” Dem: “Due to exterior factors.”

They try to start youtube live but it’s asking them for credentials and downloads and such. Dem says he’ll work on it tonight but it’s not gonna happen now.

Thoughts on BB

They like Natalie a lot, she was so nice. Love her. They agree.

Lolo gave them Shannon vibes, Dem wasn’t feeling her that much.

The Mooch. Ika liked him a lot, they think he’s hilarious and really likeable on and off camera. Dem was very impressed with him, “he has 200 million bucks! He was a really nice guy and seems open minded.” They liked him, said he’s really funny. Surprised they liked him.

Joey. Dem says he didn’t like him. “I didn’t like Joey. I didn’t like Joey’s attitude.” Ika says it came off like he didn’t want to be there.

Dina. She was nervous. She was cool though, may be fun to watch. “Dina gave me someone who’s going to be crying vibes. A little sensitive.”

Ryan. They liked him, he’s goofy and funny. He comes off naïve and innocent but funny. Dem says he reminds him of him, Ika says not really. Ika wants Ryan to go really far, she liked him a lot.

Jonathan. He was a lot, Dem starts laughing. She says he came in to the interview late and he gave her 100 percent, she appreciated that. He brought his stylist and makeup person and he had them touch up Ika’s makeup.

Tamar. She was fun and funny, will give good DRs. Excited about going on the show. Dem says she was one of the few that were fans.

Kandi. She was nice, interested in how to get far and what she should do to stay around.

Tom Green. Dem told her beforehand how funny he was. “I feel like Tom Green is funny for white people.” He’s stupid funny, Dem likes that stuff. He might last. He’s Dem’s pick to win, not that he wants him to win, but he thinks he may pull it off. He was very interested in the strategic part of the game. She likes the celebs that have an appreciation for the game.

Ricky. She doesn’t know what to say… quiet, laid back, hard to read. He said he would be the most intelligent person in the house, Dem: “he thinks he’s smart.”

Kato. Seemed like he wants to get to know him without the OJ Simpson trial. Dem says he was a lot and brought a lot of energy.

Dem was thinking that Kandi would bring more energy and personality.

Her thoughts for who will go home first: She hopes Joey goes home first because he doesn’t seem to want to be there. Dem agrees.

Who she wants to see get into an alliance: She wants someone to be loyal to Natalie. They love her.

She thinks Lolo will be a little extreme, she’s competitive and can’t hide it. Dem said he could tell how competitive she was just sitting there.

Dina will either go far or will annoy people and they’ll send her home.

Dem is scared they’re going to be threatened by Ryan. Ika doesn’t think that’s gonna be an issue, she thinks he’ll be more of a Metta, Dem thinks more of a Chuck Liddell, as far as how they’re viewed in the house.

Tom Green has a girlfriend, so no showmance for him. Eva is married. They can’t forsee any showmances.

Ika says that the people she don’t like and those she does like go far.

She won’t be sad if Ricky goes home first. Dem is curious to see him on the block, says he knows how mad he got and he wants to see if Ricky will too.

Ika says that Dem throws temper tantums, Dem says no, Ika: “What you didn’t see on the show is that Dem throws temper tantrums.” Dem: “The dryer wouldn’t work earlier…”

She says she doesn’t know what happened to the Tamar interview.

They’re excited for the first episode, Ika says to watch it then make judgements. Dem says after the interviews he’s excited more for the show. Ika is pumped BB is back. Ika says he’s going to refrain from saying mean things on twitter.

Dem randomly mentions he likes her hair, “yeah, you said you like this one.”

They say if the celebs were in there longer they would die. Dem was shocked they were complaining about sequester when it was two days.

They aren’t going to watch live feeds. “Twitter is our live stream.”

Both Ika and Dem are so tired. Dem: “Let’s go watch a movie, eat our food and crash.”

Someone says she seems short with Dem. Ika says that she’s not frustrated with Dem, she doesn’t want him to say certain things about ET Canada and the interviews, he’s not as censored.

Dem says if twitter had an edit button he would use it more. Ika says she’ll find his errors on IG and he can edit them.

Dem jokes that Ika is being short with him, Ika: “am I?! I don’t mean to be.” She laughs and looks genuinely sad about it. Dem says they’ll watch a horror movie. Ika: “I’m going to get short.”

Someone says they look high. Ika says that they’re just tired, they don’t smoke.

Ika: “I��m sorry you think I’m short right now. You’re so nice, and you cook for me.” Dem: “You’re tall right now.” Ika: “Maybe if you rub my feet I’ll be better.” Ika: “You’ll rub me?” Dem: “I’ll rub you baby.”

Ika: “You know what I feel? I feel upset but I don’t know why.” Dem: “You’re super cute. It’s okay.” Ika: “And I’m taking it out on you, I’m sorry.”

Ika says she just feels hateful, Dem says he feels like that sometimes, in the mornings.

Ika: “As soon as this live is over, you’re going to give me a hug and rub my feet, and they’ll never see it.” Dem says that they should put cameras in there so we can see how she really is.

Dem: “She’s so pretty. Look at her.” He turns the camera to her.

Ika: “When I’m hateful and he doesn’t deserve it, and he’s sleeping, I’ll wake him up and apologize. And he just says it’s okay.”

Dem says that when she’s mad, he’ll try to make her eat, get her her favorite things and will tell him she’s not hungry, but he knows she is starving. But she also says when she’s mad she doesn’t get hungry. Ika says when she’s upset, he’ll antagonize her sometimes. Dem: “I will.” Ika says that she’ll leave, and one time she was gone and he sent her a text that she should go get a coffee. Dem: “These are words from Karen SIngbiel – you’re either a problem solver or a problem maker. And I looked at the text and knew it was a problem maker. Send.” Ika says it upset her because usually when they are not okay, he is the problem solver and will make sure they’re okay, and that time he wasn’t. Dem says it was one time. Dem: “Baby, come here.” He pulls her to her and kiss her.

Dem says that in the middle of the night when she can’t sleep, she’ll wake him and tell him she’ll go make him a strong cup of coffee. Ika: “But I love my honey bunches. Will you rub me? I’m not saying I love you so you rub me, I do love you, but…”

Dem says he has an early morning tomorrow, and Ika asks if she’ll still get breakfast before he goes to work.

Live runs out of time as they’re talking about youtube and how Dem gets sad when the videos don’t do well. Ika: “It’s okay, honey.”

[janiedean]

@nederys all of you guys kinda lost your shit but i don't think you're being consistent at all. you didn't go for it being misinformed or wrongly placed, just that it was "gross" bc it was "romanticizing" blabla, like if someone made a fic about ETA terrorists or whatever and i advocated censorship and asked for it not to exist. when you accept kink and RPF, you need to stand on that principle even when it's YOUR personal/national. shaming ppl into submission is the anti strategy and it doesnt actually convince anybody of anything, much literally if it's screaming in another language to the OPs. i didnt wanna reblog or anything but i was very unpleasantly surprised with how you guys handled the situation (and i say this bc i care and i know you value rationality, not to piss you off YOUR personal/national sensibility like if someone wants to write a fic 'romanticizing' tec bundy murders or a rape fantasy or whatever it's their field day just tag it properly, it's no different for a criminal organization as i see it. a piece of sexual fantasy or literary work is not a guarantee it's portrayed in an accurate way or that it's a moral endorsementj + I'll hear your argument on 'positive representation' so i'll take your word for now but it did really come of like "your evil porn is romanticizing evil irl so it should be censored". as for the bad taste etc thing - as long as the person in question doesn't find out i dont personally see the harm. other ppl getting second-handed distastefulness/offense about it is a slippery slope, bc again that quickly devolves into "ugh why you write about rape! / rpf! if you can write kink porn and you can do rpf (like i mean, what, we just tweak the hair color and the initials to make it 'fictional'?) - it follows you can write "distasteful" kink porn about rpf all you want. it's still fiction.okay in order

In order:

as I said in the other reply, people lost their shit because we’ve had this discussion for years and every time it happens SOMEONE (most likely american but not necessarily) shows yup informing us that since mafia in US english means generally organized crime and not THAT specific organized crime we need to chill and WHO CARES YOU’RE OVERREACTING. at some point there’s a limit to how much nice you can be when you’ve been trying nicely for years and people just dismiss you most likely also because you’re not poc enough to complain - again, when it happens with people who can fall into the POC definition doing this kinda stuff automatically means you’re racist, but with us it’s not even disrespectful? or recognized as potentially harmful? fine, we lost our shit, but it’s also not the first time it happens;

the point isn’t that they were making a fic about the mafia, but if we take the ETA terrorism similitude, it wasn’t ‘making a fic abut ETA’. it was, ‘we are making an RPF fic where we take a real living spanish actor who has a friend who died during an ETA bombing and we make him the commander of an ETA faction which plants a bomb in madrid’. I’d find it distasteful if it was about FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, but whatevr - it’s fictional. real people who are actually involved with those criminals on the other side? not so cool. and the fact that these people see nothing wrong with casting them as criminals for *the mafia* shows they have no idea of what they’re talking about and again, with fictional people you can try to ignore it (even if it irks me also because 90% of the time it shows a total failure of understanding the character just by casting them as mafiosi but never mind that’s my pet peeve), but real ones? who made a pro lgbt movie and are *allies* when a mafia killing actually was what kickstarted the creation of the hugest and first anti-homophobia/pro-gay lgbtq association in italy? like. that’s fucking with real people and honestly if I was the director and knew I’d feel personally slandered especially if I come from someplace where statistically everyone knows someone who’s been hurt by the mafia in the last fifty years if they weren’t themselves. like I had a friend whose father worked for the police and the antimafia division especially and lived in palermo back in the day and criminals did try to grab her out of her pre-school and they had to change cities VERY quickly after that, and I don’t even live in sicily. and she’s not even sicilian. it was twenty years ago when they planted bombs across the entire area and killed hundreds of people just in the 90s (comprehensive list). it’s not just WRITING FIC ABOUT THE MAFIA, which I could be relatively handwaving with if it was about fictional people and even then it irks me to hell and back, but real people? who make movies pro things that the mafia hates? really? and I have to hear ‘are you angry because you’re homophobes’? I don’t ask for it NOT TO EXIST, I’m asking a basic modicum of decency.

ted bundy vs mafia: ted bundy is ONE person and he’s been convicted and whatever. if someone’s personal fantasy is fucking ted bundy WHATEVER their problem. if THEY want to do the self-insert with real criminals whatever, idgi but if they’re aware of the implications whatever. the mafia is a bunch of people and they thrive on positive media representation and it’s such large scale that it fucks with this entire country on multiple levels (ad also other countries) and here you’re not using real criminals, you’re casting as criminals people who most likely have been hurt by that same organization. it’s a difference. and if you portray it as a nice organization where hey you help people bypassing the law and gay people are accepted it’s... just... not how it works.

rpf: I’m generally pro rpf as long as people don’t go to the actual real people and don’t harass them irl (which would make a lot of rpf shippers inappropriate) but like... idk if you were around in spn fandom at the time of the infamous j2 haiti fic, but if you weren’t, tldr: person sees the aftermath of the haiti earthquake on tv, thinks ‘well that’d make a perfect setting for my j2 bigbang fic’, writes an entire fic where jared and jensen go to haiti the month it happened, her artist makes art for it photoshopping those two over like... real pictures of real dead people and three betas don’t find nothing remotely cringy in this concept. the fic gets published. it gets slandered to hell and back and while I didn’t agree on assuming the author was a pre-trump (she most likely had no idea that stuff was kindaaa racist) and that she should have been educated, I’d like to presume that people would think thrice before setting a Romance Story TM on a background where when it was published people were still excavating corpses from the rubble. it’s about the same concept as the romantic mafia fic. but with the haiti fic anyone on tumblr would agree that it’s hardly appropriate, with mafia fic it’s just ‘meh shut up you’re whining’. also, while I do agree that jared and jensen, as famous people, signed up for this, too, I don’t really think using real people for this kind of thing is fair, educated or a favor to them. I get it’s all fantasy and so on, but at least use the fictional characters. I can imagine j2 wouldn’t be happy with knowing noncon fic where they’re protagonists exists, neither with the haiti fic, but the noncon is standard fandom kink and whatever and no one else is involved, the haiti fic DOES. and while the people in those pictures wouldn’t even know, if that’s what you jerk off to at least be aware that it’s not exactly tasteful. and the people mentioned had zero idea that jerking off to the *mafia* au is not tasteful and that the *mafia* is *not* random organized crime. no one would have a problem if they called them CRIMINALS or mob or whatever without using the specific mafia word, but they like it because AESTHETICS which 90% of the time aren’t even true because the godfather aesthetic is so NOT the camorra aesthetic it’s not even funny. and of course we shoudl educate people instead, too bad that if it’s about haiti they listen and if it’s about us, they don’t;

 kink: same as above but like, again, let’s always use the poor j2 guys. the j2 mafia au as above is absolutely ew to me but at least j2 are american and most likely didn’t grow up somewhere the mafia could kill their relatives or friends. guadagnino did. and whether he knows or not (HOPEFULLY HE NEVER FINDS OUT) it’s another level of disrespectful to take a guy who made a pro lgbt movie you liked and putting him in that scenario without being aware of it. and they don’t listen if you tell them. that’s the problem. I can be very tolerant, but good god at least hear people out on the subject. and if it concerns a situation that isn’t even old or a dead organization but one that’s thriving in the country still and fucks people over every day I’d like for these people to recognize that at least it’s something not cool and not just their jerk off fodder material. at this point do the GODFATHER AU, which is what they want anyway, stick with the american mafia and try to not give them positive rep, because this idea of the mafia as a cool thing plays a major role in actual mafia organization marketing themselves as a good thing and makes the work of people actually fighting them way harder. if no one thought it was cool, it wouldn’t have half the influence it has. but do I ever see mafia aus with cops or conflicted henchmen or the likes? nah. it’s all SAD ROMANTIC BACKSTORY WITH CRIMINALS. call it some other way. it’s not asking that much.

also: I am entirely down with mafia stories in media and stuff - again, I ove my sopranos and boardwalk empire and goodfellas and I actually do like the godfather when a lot of people here at this point hate it too, but none of those things make it look like it’s palatable to be in the mafia. people can jerk off to it I suppose, but at least they should be aware of that. lowering the bar, it’s why I get pissed at people passing jc as a healthy nice relationship - at least own up to your badwrong and don’t sugarcoat it. in this case they don’t even own up to the fact that it’s a real thing that hurts real people, never mind caring for the feelings of the people they’re fans of - I could jerk off to my rpf faves in anything but I’d like to know I’m not doing it to something they would loathe, and if you have to at least use the fictional characters as the jerk-off material. I mean I’d feel uncomfortable af using them as jerk-off material to something I know they as people would hate. obviously I’m pro write whatever you want, but I’m also pro ‘be aware of what you’re doing and know you’re possibly jerking off to things that are actually harmful to a lot of people and if you do and are cool with that whatever but at least try to not make it look as it’s a good thing’ while at the same time assuming that someone who tells you it’s not cool is doing it because they’re HOMOPHOBES when the mafia is the most homophobic organization in existence or close to it. we do need positive rep when it comes to mafia stories and we never get it.

like, final example: if I had seen one ‘steve rogers is a cop who wants to take down the mafia-like organization’ for every ten ‘tiny boss steve rogers and his russian henchman bucky are THE POWER COUPLE OF THE NY CRIME SCENE AND THEY KISS IN FRONT OF EVERYONE AND HELP THE WEAK WHEN THE POLICE SUCKS ASS’ fics I ran into it’d be lovely, but the point is that I’ve never seen one such fic even if it’s a lot more IC for steve rogers to take down criminals than being a criminal, and if you make people notice that nicely (which we did more than once) the usual answer is ‘go fuck yourself it’s just aesthetics the mafia doesn’t hurt anyone’ when it actually did, does and will do as long as they have means to, and since this recasting of canonically good characters as *mafia* henchmen who are happy to be there and not itching to get out just really makes pass the concept that the mafia isn’t really that bad I think I/we affected people have the rights to point out that it’s already a distasteful thing that people should at least read about before assuming it’s random organized crime that can be substituted for whichever worldbuilding they like, and if they don’t care for that fine, at least avoid involving real people who actually would loathe that irl in it or, if anything, at least recognize that it’s fucked up to hell and back. and none of the people in that thread had the grace to do that.

I mean, obviously if I had to take the choice between one such fic not existing at all but censoring stuff and it existing without censoring stuff I’d pick the latter even if I absolutely don’t like it, but what irks me and the other people involved in this debate is how nonchalantly people do these recasting assuming that they’re not romanticizing the thing (which they’re doing) and then don’t listen to others when they’re pointed out that they’re doing it and they should be aware.

like, again, I think the haiti fic was a thing that no one with some salt in their brain and a basic amount of decency should have published. someone did. they got criticized for it and it sprung a lot of discussion (including comparing it with a gen kill fic set in east timor during the war which actually did it right and so no one actually thought it was exploiting a tragedy or being in bad taste) and tbh I think that when doing fic about serious things you should at least read up on that. but the point is that these people don’t listen, haven’t listened for years and most likely will keep on not listening and sorry but seeing a person from palermo who shoots movies that would make any cosa nostra boss mad being recast as a cosa nostra/mafia sicilian boss who, if compared to a, uh, real life person who died recently would deal with people seceding from this organization by ordering to kidnap their children and have them dissolved in acid at the ripe age of nine is really goddamned distateful and hearing ‘so your problem is that they’re gay is that why you’re so angry’ as a response instead of reading it and thinking ‘damn maybe that was a bit out of line’ isn’t exactly that great.

especially because again, these organization thrive on people assuming they’re less bad than they actually are and we’re not talking about stuff that happened three hundred years ago - the kid dissolved in acid happened in 1996 and it’s hardly the last time something like that happened. it’s not a general crime organization, it’s a very specific one, and I’ll be fine with people jerking off to any italian stereotype in existence while I roll my eyes and be fine with it, but at least I’d like these people to know what they’re doing. and they aren’t. and they should be. and on top of that some positive rep where the mafia people are inherently bad and the good guys want to take them down would be nice. I do get that it looks like I’m being incoherent but I’m not saying they can’t do it, I’m saying they should show a minimum of consideration, and they aren’t. then no one’s stopping them from doing it of course but just the fact that they-won’t-listen kind of says a lot. :/ and when it comes to real people and real things it’s not just fiction and you should at least be aware of that.

[weedstoner]

sorry i literally have no friends who watch bachelor/bachelorette so here are my opinions

i’m officially cutting all ties w the bachelor franchise bc this recent scandal thing has brought to light how absolutely awful 99% of the people who go on that show are

like i’m seeing both male and female cast members (even female cast members who are supposedly friends with corinne, who admits she blacked out and can’t even remember the incident and has hired a lawyer to do an independent investigation) basically saying she asked for it, she signed a contract so she has no recourse to complain about anything, she put herself in the situation, she drank too much, she acted “slutty” just like she always does, and it’s like......really fucking disgusting and disappointing

and i’m really sorry that all this shit had to happen in the midst of rachel’s season because i genuinely like rachel and i think it’s important that she’s the first black bachelorette and they’re like actually talking about racial issues on the show (specifically, the trope of black men being seen as inherently “aggressive”) which is great but it just gets overshadowed by all this bullshit

and of course warner brothers releases a statement essentially saying “we investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing, but no one is ever gonna see the actual video of the incident because of ~privacy~” as if they’ve ever cared about the privacy of their cast before lmfao like there was literally just an article posted by CNN picking apart the contract that all contestants are made to sign (which is a common contract for reality tv, by the way) that says they agree to let the production essentially own their image and can use it however they want without fear of any legal recourse. there is nothing stopping them from showing these tapes or at the very least censored versions of the tapes other than the fact that the tapes show stuff that they don’t want publicized

and somehow for most people this is enough for them to say “ok, well clearly nothing actually happened and corinne is just a lying slut who wanted to fuck a guy and then regretted it later” and it’s so fucking gross like i don’t want to be involved even marginally with a fandom that is so blatantly sexist

and this isn’t even the only example! how is it that all of the most genuinely hated cast members are all women (and by genuinely hated i mean, the people who get evil comments all over their social media and who everyone generally agrees are the worst) and then we have guys like chad (outwardly physically violent and shown to be an actual threat to the safety of the other people on the show MULTIPLE TIMES) and lee (blatant racist who somehow thought he should agree to appear on the season with the first black bachelorette even though he thinks BLM is a terrorist organization and the NAACP is racist) and demario (ghosted the girl he was dating, whose apartment he had keys to, to come on bachelorette and then straight up lied to rachel’s face when he was confronted about it) who still somehow get defended constantly? 

like, this incident involved corinne and demario, and just looking through bachelor instagram accounts, 95% of the comments are about how corinne is probably lying and is just a slut anyway and besides, she got drunk and agreed to be on the show so that means she was asking for it. i have barely seen ANY comments talking about how demario is clearly a sleazeball and has been proven to be a liar. and that’s so fucking disgusting to me honestly

so yeah i like, can’t do this anymore. when caroline and i started watching during jojo’s season we thought it was just a silly reality show we could laugh at occasionally and make fun of, and it was for a few seasons, but now it’s just so ugly. everything is ugly. the cast is ugly and the production team is ugly and warner brothers is ugly. fucking reality tv as a whole is ugly!

growing up in LA with a father who works in the television business and who has drafted many, many reality tv contracts, i always had a natural aversion to reality tv because i knew it was fake, and i think a lot of the appeal of reality tv to most people comes from being able to convince yourself that maybe some of it is real, so i could never really do that because i grew up knowing the truth. i guess i thought i could give it a chance, and maybe i picked the wrong franchise to do so, but nonetheless i am incredibly disappointed. i’ve never believed that the show is 100% real, i am aware of how producers choose who to give good/bad edits to, i know that entire plotlines can sometimes be completely made up, i know that footage can be manipulated to make the audience believe things happened that never did. but i at least thought that MAYBE some of the people on the show wouldn’t be complete shitwads. of course this was a stupid assumption to make

at this point, the more i hear about the franchise and the more i watch, the more i hate and resent it. these are a bunch of beautiful, skinny, perfect people, most of whom have never had to deal with any real hardship in their lives, who are solely on the show for the fame it will bring them afterwards and nothing else. no one on the bachelor is looking for a wife or husband, let’s be real. if they are, they’re the outlier of the group. 99% of people who have appeared on the show now have lucrative careers hocking diet pills and beauty boxes on instagram and getting the occasional write-up in people magazine or us weekly, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. these are people who don’t have the stamina to model but want to make bank off of being pretty and having almost zero personality. the only women on the show who actually do have personalities end up being fucking demonized for it and all of the men have totally contrived personas because they’re trying their best to look macho on tv. it’s a bunch of fake pretty people running around doing stupid shit, which a bunch of producers with no morals later edit into some ~drama~ that gets stretched out for 40 minutes of the show

so yeah i can’t do it anymore i really tried but i think i just fucking hate reality tv. or at least american reality tv. i’ve been watching some korean reality tv lately and it is striking how different it is from american reality tv. in the US, reality tv is heavily edited to create high drama and a story arc that makes sense narratively and also captivates the audience. in korea, at least from what i’ve seen, the focus is much more on capturing the genuine relationships between people, with the premise (i’m assuming) of highlighting those little interactions that really show personality and also strengthen the relationship. any “drama” that happens is clearly not contrived or built up to be bigger than it is - it’s just stuff that happens, it’s part of life. in other words, we shouldn’t even be calling our version of reality tv “reality tv” because it’s almost exactly like watching a scripted drama anyway