#I’m an actual master social worker so no one be like op doesn’t know what they are talking about

[sweetsynth]

Fun fact! Supporting “social justice” is actually meaningless in practice unless you can define what your perception of justice is and what social causes you support. Wether something is “socially just” therefor is entirely based on your own perceptions and agendas. This can lead to a lot of conflict in spaces where everyone thinks they are being “socially just”.

To some people, “justice” is restorative, i.e. an offender can work towards repaying their victim or overcoming their offense. This often involves mediated dialogue between an offender and victim.

To others it is retributive, i.e. punishment for action is seen as imperative. This can be seen frequently in western society. Jail time, cancel culture, and concepts of revenge fall under this label.

How you define justice therefor will entirely alter how your “social justice” looks. The second defining factor is your social cause(s).

Rarely will you be pro every social cause, largely because many do not align and/or the time necessary to properly engage with the causes would be soooo consuming. You can have more than one, but the key is usually choosing a few that are central to your beliefs/character. For most people, causes share themes such as;

Person 1: Supports lgbt+ marriage equality, gender affirming care, and women’s reproductive health (theme gender/sexuality equity)

Person 2: Is anti incarceration, supports removing police from schools, and desires cultural competence and bias training for those in the court system (theme justice reform)

Both of these individuals support “social justice” but there actually supporting incredibly different things! Even if you have two people supporting these same causes, their approach to justice may alter how they promote and envision social change.

You know what’s the most fun part of this? No understanding of “social justice” is technically wrong!

No one thinks they are doing the wrong thing, everyone thinks there approach is best, and it can be incredibly difficult to engage with others when you don’t know the perspectives they are bringing to the “social justice” table.

Just some fun stuff to think about as you continue on your way through life.

[onisionisacanceronthisearth]

Greg vs Alleged Classmate Part 6: Abuse

So this is the final part of the video starts with a secret child of Greg but mostly involved Greg talking about his relationship with Lainey. This was a tough one to get through and I’m sorry if it isn’t my most coherent one. I didn’t edit this one that much and Greg rambled a lot but I couldn’t go back and re-read most of my work. I’m sorry

It’s not creepy to mention kids Greg, holy shit

Ok, so this needs to be said. If I say my aunt has 5 kids, that isn’t talking about the kids, it’s talking about the aunt. If I say my aunt’s kids are all in school, that’s talking about the kids but it’s vague and just mildly descriptive. If I say “my aunt’s eldest female child whose name is Sansa Stark married Tyrion Lannister at age 14″, THAT is getting creepy in terms of how much I’m talking about the child who probably should remain more anonymous than that. We got that? Good, Greg still doesn’t so he wastes my time talking about how creepy it is to say he has a secret kid for the kid’s sake despite nothing actually being told about the kid and then skips the video. He misses a lot, and hilariously, it wasn’t even about the kid still

What Greg missed in the full minute he skips

It’s second-hand information again but M trusts the source

Lainey doesn’t know

He’s gone from small annoyances which have now blown up into very large, unmanaged problems since high school. These issues now define him as a person

“I don’t have any chemistry with Lainey???”

Nope, you didn’t then and you don’t now

Apparently, he defines chemistry with kissing on camera. His proof of chemistry is that with Skye they never kissed on camera but with Lainey he does. Also he again forgets this interview is old because he says how they both kiss in her videos. Also is claiming M said him and Skye were passionate which isn’t the case, just that Greg flip-flopped a lot and abused her then left her out to dry.

Yay, another gay joke. Even dressed as a boy, kissing Lainey, if anything, proves how little you love them because you show no passion in the kiss, push her away, belittle her in your videos, shit on her, scare her, etc. Your videos prove you don’t love her. It is heartbreaking even if you don’t like Lainey.

Also, years don’t count when it’s abusive, it just shows how long you’ve groomed and manipulated her Greg. Also, THIS INTERVIEW IS 3 YEARS OLD

And now I’d say Lainey does know you, she’s just so stuck on you. I don’t need to know the victim to hate the abuser, I don’t have to know the victim to feel sympathy for them. I don’t need to know Skye, I don’t need to know Shiloh, I don’t need to know Adrienne, I don’t need to know Billie, I don’t need to know Lainey, I don’t need to know Sarah, I don’t need to know Maya, I don’t need to know Madison. They’re all women you’ve used and abused. The last three you did so through Lainey

Billie blame

If we want to see Lainey be abused by someone we should watch “My Side of the Story” by Lainey. But the main shitty person there isn’t Greg apparently, it’s Billie for how she responded to what they did to her and putting all the blame on her when at most it was half. With Greg pulling all the strings

And Greg is claiming she basically told Lainey to kill herself using vague imagery using a hateful and direct way because he needs to make sure we can’t turn around and showcase the many times Greg has told someone to kill themselves.

So Billie is the horrible, violent, abusive person while Greg stood by his spouse, If by “stand by” he means standing in front of his pregnant spouse and signing his two kids to her because he’s leaving her for Billie then yes, he did “stand by” her. The only reason he’s “still here” is because Billie didn’t take him back

Holy manipulation of a situation Batman!

Also, this interview is pre-Billie so this argument makes even less sense

ALSO, he very specifically describes abuse as violent. I want him to try and refute his actual abuse which is much quieter than that. Especially abuse they’re talking about which is pre-Billie, but I’m glad to know anytime he thinks of a time he was shitty, he at least thinks of the time he cheated on Lainey and told her to deal with it then told her he was leaving and didn’t give to shits about her, their son, and their unborn child while also thinking he wasn’t that bad

I don’t want to listen to this: skips the good stuff and makes out like M is creepy for thinking of Greg’s child-filled audience

He skips:

M predicting what Greg was going to do if he ever responded (pretend it’s all a lie)

His millions of audience members will believe him. Thankfully, no. This video has 20k views and only 300 good comments (with some bad ones he hasn’t deleted yet). Likes/dislikes turned off

“You know this is just a grand version of what he would do back in high school. As opposed to saying “I have problems, I did some messed up things” ; he’ll say “I don't have problems, I don’t do messed up things. None of this is true“ --> sounds about right

“Watching him so easily be all right with making himself a role model to hundreds of thousands of children out there, teenagers are frankly still children“ ----> Greg skips here and hears “thousands of children” before going “yuck” and skipping, building a retoric that M is a creepy pedo as per usual

“Some of these kids, my son and my daughter, are going to be the same age as these kids that watch him right now one day.. and it breaks my heart that a lot of these kids are gonna sit there and think ‘that is how I should be in life. I should be someone that judges other people, whom I don’t know, for things that aren’t any of my business.’“ ---> I wish Greg had responded to this

“How could I have changed since high school?” also “Cycle of abuse? What’s that?”

Greg states he’s confused because in high school he had to rely on his mom and now he controls others

People change, though you still act as if the government is going to act like your mom and not ever punish you for doing things wrong

People who experience abuse tend to inflict it on other. You admit your mom was abusive Greg, these two stages in your life link together quite well

My spouse is a psych major, how can she be abused?

Simple:

“good thing Greg doesn’t hit me”

“Oh, it’s different when he does it”

“but he wouldn’t be nice if he hated me”

“we have kids”

“he kisses me on camera” (Like Jaclyn)

“he came back to me after he left”

Also, not all psych degrees cover abuse and Lainey only has her bachelor's degree. Or at least as in-depth as Greg seems to think. It’s possible to miss things in your own life. That’s why therapists have their own therapists, that’s why doctors can’t prescribe things for themselves or family. Not to mention you’d already sunk your claws into your obsessed fan before she ever read a psych book. When you’re gaslit and abused, something as simple as logic or googling “am I in an abusive relationship” does not register to you as a red flag. The latter happened to me, I googled it at least once every six months, ticked all the red flags, then said no, doesn’t apply here. But it did, and it does the moment you had to google that phrase. Lainey went through the motions in a video, she came up with the same bullshit I did and elected to ignore the questions even she couldn’t pretend didn’t apply as many do. People who are abused don’t tend to know they’re abused until it’s too late. If we knew we’d have left long before being raped or beaten by our “loving” partners. As I’ve said before, fuck you Greg

“I paid for their school”

Irrelevant, but glad to know you hold it over her head. Also glad you decided to put in how much money it was in your statement.

Also, her father was paying her tuition and board, as well as giving her an allowance. All while she was secretly married to you. You simply wasted your own and his money. Yeah, her father had every right to threaten to pull her college fund, she wasn’t owed it, and it was a desperate attempt to get his essentially kidnapped daughter to come home from the adult man who had preyed on her and took her away as his own.

His argument here is, “deflection to her dad without context”, “look, I saved her”, and finally “I gave her her college education of 50k, this isn’t abuse because I gave her this massive gift that saved her life”. Wow, if that isn’t a nice abuse tactic...

“You guys aren’t psych majors, she is”

See the point of her being a psych major above plus the fact that experience helps identify it, almost all your former partners calling you abusive (“we get it, Greg, you like hurting young girls”), you filling all the checkboxes for abuse, outsider perspective, former friends calling you abusive, Social Fucking Repose identifying your abuse (I’d say he’s an expert in that field), and anyone who is a decent person can identify shit when they smell it

Also Lainey doesn’t have more psychology experience than all of us combined, she got a bachelor’s in psych degree online many years ago, never worked in the field or as a co-op student as far as I’m aware, never got her master’s, and her intention was to be a children’s social worker. She’s as qualified to talk about abuse as Kati Fuckface Morton is to talk about diagnosing and treating personality disorders as a marriage counsellor. Lainey should work for BetterHelp, at least she does have one degree

Concluding statements on abuse by Greg

And so we end with Greg attempting to gaslight the audience by calling us the crazy ones who are actually abusing Lainey by invalidating her feelings and the misunderstanding the cycle of abuse. Things Greg is gaslighting us as doing:

We’re acting like Lainey is stupid

That Lainey can’t think for herself

We’re belittling Lainey

We’re acting superior to Lainey

We’re attacking her intelligence and calling her nothing like a blob of goo on the pavement, essentially a vegetable

(See Lainey’s “Hater Listens to 21 Pilots” and see if this checks any of Greg’s behaviours on screen)

Greg now describes the cycle of abuse as the victim replicating their abusive dynamic. Sometimes it results in people running from one abusive relationship to another, other times it results in the victim never wanting to be a victim again and wanting power so they then become the next abuser. Greg himself calls himself the dom of his relationship, the “father figure” or “guider”. Also notes he pays for the bills in most relationships which is a typical sign of a power imbalance. We see two iterations with this with Greg, Greg being abused by his mom. She tried kicking him out before becoming an adult, yelled at him when he cried, beat him with a fire extinguisher, etc. Now Greg is the abuser, laughing at Lainey when she cries, makes her cry, talks down to her, uses her mercilessly, etc. And now Lainey uses children like Sarah the same way Greg uses and hurts her. Lainey also defends herself with these girls as her shield against Greg.

You kept your finances separate because you didn’t want a Skye situation, Lainey has a degree she cannot use to get a job, Lainey’s youtube was dependent on you and still mostly is. Lainey requires you for all emotional issues she has but yet you will wake up a guest in your house so she can deal with it instead of you.

Food for thought Greg, your mom abused you all your life, yet you always returned to her and tried keeping her happy until now. It’s almost as if you let your abuser get away with things

The video ends before the end of the interview, Greg never addresses the alleged death of two of his dogs

[taimuman]

Instead of writing replies I’m gonna write character notes lmao

Fire Man: Disposes of deceased robot masters and handles their paperwork. It’s pretty morbid. Sans for the robots built for strength, he’s one of the stronger and more durable industrial robot masters. Actually runs and is in charge of the incineration plant he works in. He got a promotion; he initially started as a super worker and became the lead supervisor. He does not own it. Could possibly burn everything due to the fact that he can set his flames to be as hot as the sun for whatever reason, but he’s not gonna let himself do that.

Time Man: Built explicitly to manipulate time itself. He may or may not be able to time travel at this point. Clock hands were not a weapon he initially a weapon he had, and even now they’re still poorly implemented. His only survivability comes from his time manipulation and his absurdly precise timing. Incredibly nonchalant regarding his own mortality, and is more concerned with the lives of others than his own. Seems to have no sense of self-preservation, so others have to watch out for him. Despite this, he is kind of afraid of the Mega Man Killers, sans Punk. Time 

Flash Man: Due to being based off of Time Man, his weapon is the Time Stopper, and his actual weapon isn’t particularly advanced. Has much better aim than he does in the game. Nearly defeated Mega Man. Had Quick Man not intervened, Mega Man would have lost in MM2. Honestly extremely tricky to defeat due to being stupidly OP with the Time Stopper. Despite his gun being built for speed over power, he himself is incredibly durable and strong at the cost of speed. He only appears to be quick due to the Time Stopper. A true leader by heart, whether it’s being head of a family or leading an entire army. Unfortunately, the former keeps taking a backseat due to Dr. Wily’s army constantly growing.

Mikhail Cossack: The ultimate dad, apparently. A pessimist, but he does try to restrain his pessimism when it comes to his own family, as he doesn’t want to have a bad impact on them. His wife is still dead, and her death made things a lot worse for him. He holds himself together for his family, but there are times he weeps in private for his late wife. A smoker since his pre-teens. He managed to quit for his wife, but he started smoking again as though he never quit when his wife died. He uses e-cigs so that his family doesn’t have to deal with the smell and so the impact on his health is far less, but he is somewhat dependent on them. He puts his family before his career, and that has held him back a fair amount. He has no reservations about this decision.

Napalm Man: Has perhaps some of the most destructive potential out of a lot of robot masters. He carries a variety of weapons, including literal tactical nukes. He is built to be like a tank, and thus is nearly indestructible. He really isn’t someone to mess with. The fact that he personally prefers not to fight and would rather talk things out is almost a safety precaution. The only thing not making it such is the fact that it’s unintentional; it’s in his IC chip, not programmed into him by Dr. Wily. The Patriot Bomber has since been modified from a race vehicle to a military vehicle. It’s as dangerous as he is and you really don’t want to be in its way. He is the only one who can pilot it. He won the Grand Prix, and his weapons museum still runs to this day. It brings in more money than canon lets it, though his siblings have to run it in his stead. He will never, ever give Quick Man or anyone else a race rematch. He not only no longer has the proper vehicle to do so, but he has a feeling he wouldn’t win. He isn’t quite sure how he won in the first place.

Centaur Woman: Similar to Flash Man, she’s a little OP due to her basically being given a copy of the Time Stopper. It’s less effective than Flash Man’s weapon, however, and she isn’t fully sure what she’s doing with it. Her actual weapon is a bow and arrow that she can fire nearly at the speed of a gun. It sacrifices some speed for more accuracy. She does have an interest in poetry, I just need to actually look into some myself. Philosophy too. Known for her efforts to rescue humans from natural disasters. The woman is incredibly busy let me put it to you that way.

Concrete Man: Loud, boisterous, and incredibly energetic. To him, life is a party that never stops. He can be serious, but only on rare occasions does he bother to. Things get incredibly ugly when he’s angry. Like. Crushing human skulls angry. Nearly killing Dr. Wily for taking advantage of him and his line angry. Don’t do it.

Shade Man: Being the sole survivor (well, one of only two survivors) of his entire social circle has left him more scarred than he lets on. Everyone he knew, including himself, was deemed useless and unwanted, and, sans for himself and Mary, was exterminated. This left him with a deep hatred of humanity as a whole, but not on an individual level. He has no interest in going back to a system that called for his death, and he willingly serves Dr. Wily, as he believes that despite the man’s incompetence, he’d build a world that wouldn’t scrap him and his friends if they hit some arbitrary expiration date. He is also scarred by the fact that his purpose was also coldly ripped away from him. During his time at the amusement park, he was more awkward and dorky, with a mild case of workaholism. He was a loser who loved kids and loved entertaining people. After the loss of everyone and everything he ever knew, he was a broken individual left with nothing, and he didn’t know what to do with himself. Somehow either he was found by Dr. Wily or he found Dr. Wily, and he very awkwardly joined the army willingly. Piecing himself back together was an excruciating task, despite how charismatic and trickster-like he seems now. In fact, most of his tragedy is kept under lock and key. This got really angsty and I cannot fully convey what is going on rn. Shade Man’s weapon cannot be truly copied due to the fact that it’s a hardware malfunction and not an actual, proper weapon. All Mega Man gets is data from the original weapon, and even then it is incomplete and non-functional. Truly, deeply cares for Mary, but is completely at odds with her due to the fact that he sees her as continuing to be part of a system that will kill them. He doesn’t blame her for it in the same sense that he doesn’t see every robot master as participating in their own slavery. He just doesn’t agree with the idea of fixing the system so much as destroying it.

Piano: The sister to Forte and counterpart to Roll that should have been. Where Forte is “he who hesitates is lost,” Piano is “think first, then act.” In some situations, Forte is right. In some situations, Piano is right. Needs development in terms of her capabilities, but she’s combat support, and not meant for direct combat. She’s intelligent and carries devices to help her achieve certain goals. I should really do more with her.

Stone Man: Dr. Wily really has no idea what the hell he did when creating Stone Man, and honestly, even Flash Man has no idea what happened. Stone is an anomaly that cannot be replicated at the moment. Stone Man is borderline unkillable. Even if his body were completely destroyed, IC chip included, he could simply move onto another body. He isn’t sure how this works either. A really, really bad fighter, unless pressed. And even then. He hates fighting more than Napalm Man does and he’d really rather just be left to his construction work. Loves cinema. Like. A lot. A lot of his free time is spent watching movies, tv shows, cartoons, or reading books or comics. He does exercise in his free time. Has a slight anxiety disorder. Most of the time it manifests in him standing awkwardly in the corner while everyone else has fun, or him just being really quiet.

Punk: A rebel by nature. If she hasn’t defected from Dr. Wily by now, it’s probably because living under human rule is worse than dealing with Dr. Wily. Flash is also not too bad. Not to mention she does care about her stupid, stupid linemates, and someone’s gotta look out for them. Pretty friendly. Does regret what she did to Time Man, and she did apologize to him. Didn’t want Time Man to be killed and did try to stick up for him. Enker had no mercy and Ballade didn’t like leaving a fight unfinished.

Tina McIntyre: Loves space and all that it encompasses. If she could go exploring, she would. She’s undeveloped rn sorry.

Josephine: Also pretty undeveloped. Taciturn and awkward. She isn’t fully sure what to make of the world around her, as she’s only now fully gaining sentiency. Isn’t quite sure how to express emotion, but she feels it.” I think.

Turbo Man: Lives to make others and himself happy. A smile on the faces of others brings him great joy. Particularly protective of Nitro, as she deals with a lot in her career, and he wants to give her a break. I may just add him as having been a contestant in the Grand Prix. Dunno yet.

Jewel Woman: “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” is her favorite song, and while she tries not to be repetitive, it’s not unheard of for her to sing it at karaoke night. She also uses the phrase every now and again. Has a love of jewelry and is extremely knowledgeable about them. She has her own stash okay. Her specialty is cutting gems, particularly diamonds, not mining them. Really. Really feminine. I have yet to develop her response to the whole MM9 incident, but she’s likely not particularly happy with her company and either quit and went somewhere else, or is going to quit and go somewhere else. She refuses to stay at a place that deemed her useless and sent her to be scrapped.

[tabletopontap]

Top 10 Most Wanted Games of 2017

These are the top ten games that were published in 2017 that I would like to own, but don’t currently.  There are other games that came out in 2017 that I do absolutely love, but I already own them, so they can’t be my “most wanted”; they would be on a different list.

   10.  Spirit Island      9.  This War of Mine       8.  Azul       7.  Dice Forge      6.  Sentient      5.  Ex Libris      4. Fog of Love      3.  Barenpark      2.  Near and Far      1.  Pandemic Legacy: S2

See why these games made my list after the break.

Spirit Island - Has made its way onto 2017 Top 10 lists of Youtube boardgame reviewers already.  It has a unique theme in which players take on the roles of spirits of an island trying to prevent humans from colonizing the land.  It reminds me of games in which you play the “bad guys”--supervillains trying to destroy the world, viruses attacking bodies instead of treating viruses, etc.  However, in this game I wouldn’t say you’re playing a bad guy.  It’s all about perspective.  Treat the land kindly, don’t overuse its resources.  I think these are good values coming through in the form of play.  More than the them, though, I’m always on the lookout for a shiny, new co-op.  My only hesitation is that this one might be too hard.  I found another co-op, Ghost Stories, to be too difficult to beat and eventually traded it away before mastering it.  This one is definitely a try-before-you-buy for me, but I still find it intriguing enough to put it on my wishlist.

This War of Mine - Youtuber Rahdo praises this game for bringing social awareness to the effects of war from the perspective of civilians living in a war zone (as opposed to war from a military/combat perspective).  In The Dice Tower podcast, Tom Vasel talked about how the game can bring down your mood.  He shared a specific example of how one decision made earlier in the game implied a particular outcome affecting characters later on in the storyline.  Even though the theme sounds starkly depressing, I’m curious to try out this co-op game for myself.

Azul - I don’t generally consider myself an abstract strategy game fan, but there’s no denying that this game looks pretty.  This game drew me in with its pretty tile pieces.  I’m a little concerned about multiple reviewers saying the game can be mean at the 2 player count, since I mostly game with my spouse.  Still, the short playing time and casual-friendly difficulty level makes this a must try for me.

Dice Forge - This game is all about customizing your dice to create better outcomes for yourself when you roll them.  Dice Forge is to dice what Mystic Vale is to customizing a deck of cards.  Is this a gimmick, or is there a solid game underneath?  Tom Vasel praised it.  My main gaming partner didn’t like Mystic Vale, so she’s lukewarm about this one.  I didn’t get a chance to play Mystic Vale, myself, so I can’t speak from that experience.  All I know is that I’m interested in this dice version of customization...which seems strange to me, because usually I’m the one complaining about how unlucky I am at rolling dice!  Maybe it’s the illusion that I could actually craft a die with only good sides.

Sentient - Ever since I watched the Youtube video, Rahdo Runs Through of Sentient, I’ve wanted to play it.  I don’t know why, but I found the game mechanisms captivating.  This is a dice manipulation game in which you want to place your dice in a certain way in order to appropriately activate your cards, which represent different worker robots.  This game is brought to us from the same designer as Gold West, another game I like in a brain-burner sort of way.

Ex Libris - This is a worker placement game about building up a library of books.  Isn’t that a clever theme for set collection?  This game had me on theme alone!

Fog of Love - I’m kicking myself a little for not backing this one on Kickstarter when I had the chance.  Some games I don’t learn about in time, but this one I definitely knew about.  I saw Rahdo’s review on Youtube, but I try to hold myself back from investing in too many Kickstarter games.  Maybe it’s because I feel like I’ve been burned before.  Anyway, I believe this game was only $39 on Kickstarter and now it’s retailing for around $50 at walmart.com.  It has garnered positive reviews (from Rahdo and Shut Up & Sit Down on Youtube).  It also has been blamed for breaking up couples, so maybe it’s a good thing I haven’t played this one yet?!?

Barenpark - Lauded as the best of the Tetris-style boardgames, I would really like to play Barenpark.  I’m a big Patchwork fan and have played Cottage Garden.  I haven’t played Uwe’s latest polyominoes game, Indian Summer, which was just published in 2017.  Still, I’ve heard that Barenpark is the game to beat.  Plus, who doesn’t want to design a park full of cute bears?

Near and Far - Described as being the rich and fulfilling storytelling game that Above and Below should’ve been, Near and Far seems to have attracted more fans than its predecessor.  I’ve actually played Above and Below and enjoyed it.  Ryan Laukat is an amazing artist!  It’s hard to believe he’s a one-man shop, designing, illustrating, and producing his own games.  I can understand people’s criticism of Above and Below’s storylines.  However, my group of gaming friends all have active imaginations.  Whenever we played, we would actually elaborate on the storyline bits rather than strictly reading the text in the spiralbound notebook.  That’s why I think A&B managed to still be a hit for me.  However, I’ve heard this game has better storylines AND a co-op mode, so that’s why this game is ranked so high on my list.

Pandemic Legacy: S2 - Do I even need to say anything about this game?  I LOVED Season 1 with its unexpected twists and turns.  I have huge expectations for this follow-up.  It doesn’t hurt that one of the color choices for the box cover is yellow, which is my spouse’s favorite color (the alternative box cover is black; now I’ve got “Black & Yellow” in  my head).  The base game, Pandemic, is still one of my favorites of all time.  It’s co-op, strategic, doesn’t take too long to play, is fun even if you lose!  How many games can you say that about?

That’s it for this Top 10.  Stay tuned for my next one!