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mintyxxie · 1 month ago

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I've seen it all - Rating all adaptations of Cherry Magic ✩

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Okay, so I tried to hunt down every adaptation of Cherry Magic! Thirty Years Of Virginity Can Make You A Wizard?! and watched them all.....like the chronically online loser expert I am.

THIS HAS SOME SPOILERS.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Ratings:

[If I missed any adaptation lmk and I'll watch it and rate it!]

So here are my ratings (in the order in which I watched/read them):

Manga (The original source material, 2018) [6/10]

Thai drama (2023-2024) [9/10]

Japanese drama (2020) [8/10]

Anime (2024) [7/10]

Japanese Movie (2022) [note: this was a sequel to the J-drama]

Chinese Radio Drama (2019) [8/10]

Important note: I'm not sure if the radio drama and the drama CD are the same thing, just in case I'm going to separate the two. I couldn't find the OG Japanese drama CD with English subs anywhere so if any one knows where to find it then lmk. Not paying 20 bucks because I am below the poverty level (fully embodying the college student aesthetic <3).

: ̗̀➛ The Manga (2018)

My favorite volume cover <3

→ General thoughts:

This might be a little dumb but honestly, I had no idea that this manga was pretty recent. I thought that this was an older 2000's manga. I only found out when I looked up the production year for this blog post LMFAO.

Building on that, the art style is fairly unique and a breath of fresh air from the typical late 2010s manga art style. It definitely gave me nostalgia—but with less secondhand embarrassment. Also my favorite part is MC's emo bangs...when he's an office worker.

I found it fun how they didn't start off the series by glazing the male lead and his achievements (which was done in almost every other version.). This approach made the male lead a lot more approachable in my opinion and lessened the gap between the two.

The manga at the very start is extremely focused on the two main characters. They don't really introduce or highlight other characters until later on. (most notably Fujisaki and with the exception of MC's bestie). Manga is also pretty fast-paced in comparison to the other adaptations in my opinion. This is mainly because doesn't really spend a lot of time building up tension or introducing the characters. If anything it feels like the mangaka was going through every arc/major character interaction as if they were bullet points. You can also argue that the other adaptations are slow-paced in comparison to the manga, but in this household the majority rules.

Not a lot of focus on visual elements (unless it's to show emotion). The background is pretty basic and kept to a minimum which helps keep the focus on the relationship between MC and ML.

At the very start, the focus is put more on the awkwardness between the two characters. It's really light-hearted and doesn't particularly hold any strong tension or emotion. I like that because technically speaking the two of them are experiencing something new, I'm TIREDDD of seeing a character fall in love for the first time ever yet miraculously be an expert at it. The awkwardness of a first love and the inexperience that comes with it is a breath of fresh air when put into the context of two adults.

One thing that I really liked about the manga (and the series in general) is how the MC talks about the ethics of his mind-reading ability and actually feels guilty about taking advantage of it. I appreciate how he also comes clean to the ML. The ethics of these abilities, especially mind reading, is so interesting to me, especially considering how it's usually glossed over.

Also...I really appreciate how the MC doesn't look like a 16-year-old twink. He looks his age, a rare sight nowadays.

The perspective of the male lead is shown pretty early on. There isn't a lot of build-up for the alternate perspective. It felt pretty underwhelming when the ML revealed why he fell in love with MC. In my opinion, it failed to draw out strong emotion from the reader. The part where the male lead gets borderline sexually harassed at work also fell flat. I read it and thought "ok...well...that just happened" and quickly moved on.

[The flat delivery of the more emotional and "heavier" scenes is a consistent ick of mine. The manga does an amazing job of communicating the awkward and comedic properties of the series but completely fails at drawing out heavier emotions from the reader. This could just be a me thing though. I blame this fact on the lack of proper build-up and transitions. The switch between emotions happens too quickly, and the manga lacks proper transition panels, making character interactions seem inorganic. The series generally capitalizes on the "out of pocket" aspect of the character's thoughts and emotions. Everything is so random and unexpected which is what makes it funny and interesting, this however makes love confessions and more emotional scenes fall flat because, in the context of the series, these scenes are NOT meant to be comedic. Trying to blend serious and funny is generally difficult and something that a lot of mangakas struggle with. ]

Anyway, the ML's perspective is always a treat. Just a poorly built-up one. My man is also a whole green forest, I'm so happy that he didn't end up forcing himself on MC and instead respected his boundaries.

One thing that I noticed while re-reading the manga is how expressive the characters are, especially the male lead (finally out of cold aloof male lead jail). His awkward wink was so adorable tbh, a funny contrast to his extremely horny thoughts.

“But Mimi, isn't this contradictory? you *JUST* said that the manga suffers from sung jinwoo syndrome (A severe lack of emotional build-up which leads to extremely flat emotional scenes)!" Before you crucify me allow me to elaborate....

It’s simple, deeper emotions generally require more build-up, especially emotions (and emotional themes) that deviate from the main genre. Shyness, awkwardness, happiness, etc are all naturally a part of the traditional romcom slice-of-life genre. If the main emotion(s) that the reader gets across is light-hearted then the story naturally builds up to it and is something that the reader expects so they come into it prepared to feel said emotions. If you try to introduce an emotion such as sadness in this context then naturally you would need to properly build it up in order for the reader to properly feel and process it since it isn't expected (Even things done for 'shock' value still need appropriate build-up, it would just be done properly.). The characters here are very expressive in terms of emotions, but character expressiveness doesn't necessarily carry along to the reader.

I also love the side couple. Their mutual love for the cat is the highlight of the entire series tbh. ITS SO CUTE.

Anyway, to save you the pain of me ranting about the side couple ima make it short and sweet (look at how nice I am....I might make a separate post just to have a yap fest about them). The build-up towards their relationship was so well-written (dare I say even more than the main couple?). I'm so happy that they got their own happy ending.

→ Rating ✩✩✩✩✩✩

6/10

Honestly, this rating was a tough one for me to give because on one hand, the manga excelled in many ways and this is the original source material so it felt weird to give it a rating lower than its adaptations. However, I have quite a bit of reasons for my ratings, all of which were mentioned throughout the previous section but I'll summarize.

The manga left a lot to be desired when it tried to communicate deeper feelings, the characters felt awkward and the interactions felt really inorganic and flat during the "emotional" scenes. I don't really think it's an issue with the art style itself but rather an issue with the panel handling and management. There weren't a lot of transitional panels that helped strengthen the main emotional panels. I don't know if that makes sense because I don't really know the proper terminology but I hope that gets my point across. This is honestly a big thing because this is a romance slice-of-life manga where the main appeal and point of it is the emotions and the interactions between the characters. It's a very character-focused genre, and in this case where world-building is near nonexistent all the pressure falls on making sure that the two leads have smooth interactions. Which I feel like it didn't meet.

: ̗̀➛ Thai Drama (2023-2024)

Best Cherry Magic promotional picture in my very humble opinion.

→ General thoughts

This adaptation establishes really quickly the difference between MC's and ML's positions at the company. Not only does it establish this fact pretty early on but it also reinforces it quite a bit.

MC's relationships with those around him are a lot stronger than in any other adaptation. He also seems more well-liked and more socially active in his workplace. The intern is introduced pretty early on which is something that I appreciate. The birthday party was SO CUTE OMG. It was so funny and adorbs to see MC awkwardly giving ML a piece of birthday cake even though they never really interacted much till that point. Also, it helped establish a stronger bond between MC and Fujisaki (since she was a part of this small birthday celebration).

There is also the addition of Mrs. Cupid (I forgot her name so that will be the name that I'll use for her, also I think that this was a cultural addition) was pretty interesting. Her role as a mentor/mother figure to MC helped show that he isn't some reclusive hated loser in his workplace.

There's a LOT of emphasis on the relationships between characters in the workplace, which is a notable change when comparing it to other adaptations. It could be a cultural thing? This is my first Thai drama and delve into Thai media so I could be wrong (please don't beat me up). MC here is way more social. The intern is a lot more relevant here and is the reason why MC had to stay overtime.

The ML here is SO MUCH MORE awkward because the series establishes the difference between their positions pretty early on. It makes the difference between how he acts for the company (super put together and cool) and how he acts in front of MC (eagerly & shyly asking him about getting ice cream after the thank-you dinner) so CUTE. This is also something that differs from other adaptations because in the others they weren't able to choose where to eat.

The personality of Tsuge was so different it gave me whiplash. Like a complete 180. He gives off more playful and childish vibes here, starkly contrasting his quiet and aloof OG persona. He's also a lot more straightforward and bossy LMAO.

This and the rest of the adaptations have an advantage. They can use auditory elements to bring emotion to the scenes which I think is something that helps exaggerate events. For example, when ML was asking MC about the thank-you dinner, MC was listening to his thoughts and was very awkward. The typing heard in the background and the lack of background music help bring the scene to life by 1. making it look even more awkward since both ML and MC stay silent for extended periods of time and 2. Reinforcing the comedic office sitcom feeling (not genre because technically this isn't a sitcom).

There was also this arc of the fake boyfriend trope where MC was egged on to be the fake BF of Fujisaki. Honestly, this adaptation brought more personality and life to Fujisaki as a character and employee. The appearance of her shitty ex was an interesting bonus and helped deepen her character.

Honestly, a lot of scenes here changed, it would take me a lot of time to sit down and break down every scene change individually. I have to say that all the changes changed how the series felt and how the relationship between the characters came across. One thing that I have to mention is that not only have a lot of scenes changed but a lot of things are out of order. I'm not really complaining though because it didn't really stick out to me as nonsensical when watching, it made sense why they made the changes and honestly, I support some of it. I'm mildly upset that the scene where the voucher was expired and this ML had to pay was cut off, but other than that no major complaints.

The misunderstanding also dragged on for a lot longer & the way he dramatically passed out??? hello??? It strays off from the original more and more every episode. It feels like I'm watching a different show.

I'm really happy that they delayed the ML's POV. The build-up here was a lot more intense than the original. I really liked how they portrayed the dismissal of ML's hard work and preferences in favor of his looks, kind of a "stay in your own lane and use your pretty face" thing. The portrayal of the sexual harassment towards ML was also a lot smoother, more emotionally intense, and heavier here, a lot more emotional. These changes made the scene between ML and MC a lot more special in my opinion, and made me feel a lot of sympathy towards the ML. He also actually cried here and the scene was a lot more emotional. This also applies to when ML went into detail on why he fell in love with MC, it was really touching. The problem of the lackluster emotional scenes in the original was fixed here.

The side couple also faced a lot of changes, all of which were welcome in my opinion. The series went into a lot more detail between the two from the start, and the personality of Minato was a lot nicer here too. The side couple felt a lot more dynamic and human.

There were a lot of scenes between Fujisaki and Rokkaku, which was interesting, to say the least. I don't know how I felt about that, it wasn't bad, just weird considering the original.

→ Rating ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

9/10

I think that the experience of watching this is extremely different from reading the original material. If we’re accounting for accuracy, this series would lose a lot of points, however if you're just watching this for fun the experience is extremely enjoyable.

I really like how this version communicates the character dynamic between the male lead and the main character. My only ick is that it made the main character a lot more popular than he originally was, thus making the male lead have a crush on him seem less surprising in a way? Also in a way that took away the funny, "I hate my shitty cooperate job and all my co-workers" feeling.

: ̗̀➛ Japanese Drama & Movie (2024)

Bunching them together because the movie is a sequel to the drama

→ General thoughts

The J-drama shows you more aspects of the MC's life and general personality before he got his power. In a way, it showed how lonely he is (via the fact that only his mom and long-time friend greeted him on his birthday).

The drama introduced a lot of characters at the beginning, and it made MC's friend, Tsuge, extremely relevant early on. This part makes the viewer more invested in the side couple and the side stories involving them a lot sooner.

Honestly, though, my favorite part is the little shop owner. In the other versions the place where he gets his lunch is at a convenience store and the only relevant interaction is when he touches the cashier's hand and she starts tweaking over how gross it is. Seeing the shopkeeper side-eye him for always ordering double mayo was really funny to me, and in a way, it added more personality to the world around him and the interactions that he has outside of the main plot (this is something to note because the J-drama shows a LOT of his time outside of the office, something that stands out when comparing it to other adaptations).

The addition of the asshole co-worker was an interesting addition/change from the original. In the OG, MC was the boss who was being an asshat, which is why he stayed overtime, in the case of the J-drama it was actually his co-worker and it was MC who offered to take over the assignment. This change made MC look like a pushover & it followed regular office comedy plots.

Many micro-interactions were also added, which added more depth to their relationship. My favorite example was how the drama expanded on how the MC was touched by ML giving him the scarf (because during that scene MC heard ML's thoughts about how mistreated MC is and how much he appreciates him :3). I also love how it revealed that ML specifically made a traditional Japanese breakfast because he knew that MC would like it. It showed how much ML really cared about MC and how he kept track of his likes and dislikes even without interacting with him a lot.

I also love how ML defended MC when asshole co-worker berated him for 'being unreliable'. He was so passive-aggressive it was so cool honestly. Also for some reason, Rokkaku was shown to be around ML a lot more often and was shown a lot earlier (though he didn't outwardly have major parts till later). Also here MC was given more overtime work, this time because ML heard about it when MC was first given the task he immediately was able to compile data and help MC from the get-go. I really liked this small change because ML improved MC's work-life quality, which was pretty shit. Also here there was no dinner coupon, instead MC did it of his own free will (went to ML running to ask him to get dinner with him, though he was inspired by his co-worker bringing it up first).

Similar to the Thai drama, their dinner date got interrupted by a company dinner :(. Though they never had a chance to be 1 on 1 here which made me (and the ML) sad.

For some reason here MC never gave Rokkaku medicine? Rather it was Rokkaku who offered to go and get some for MC from the convenience store.

The biggest interactions that changed in my opinion were the interactions between MC and his friend, Tsuge. For example, instead of meeting at Tsuge's house they instead meet at a restaurant. His advice to MC was also different, telling him to ignore ML and that what matters the most is MC's feelings, contrary to the OG where Tsuge suggested that MC take advantage of ML's feelings. I feel like this small change in how Tsuge approached advising MC helped reinforce the idea that MC tends to be a pushover who puts other people's feelings above his own (since he felt the need to specifically tell MC to focus on his own feelings). He was also so iconic for telling MC to not fall in love with someone, instead, MC should just get a cat if he's lonely.

The side couple here was also introduced a lot earlier.

Although small, these additions help add more character depth to the main character which makes the experience more enjoyable IMO.

Just like the other adaptations, a lot of the ending scenes were left out, though in this case, they produced a movie to act as a sequel to the drama for the sake of including the left-out material (ML meeting MC's parents, etc). I feel like because of that the movie is a must if you truly want to get the true feel of the ending. Also, a lot of scenes were skipped or smushed together (kind of a 3-in-1 type thing).

They kept edging us with the kiss scene low-key. I'm not even a big fan of them; I just got annoyed by how I felt like a pig on a stick.

→ Rating ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

8/10

Overall, pretty lovely.

I found it pretty interesting how they added things and expanded on pre-existing scenes while simultaneously skipping over and combining original material. I don't really understand why they picked certain scenes over others, well to a certain degree I kind of do but at the same time, there was tons of original material...why add/expand on things unnecessarily when you already have long and expanded upon scenes.

Rokakku's interactions with MC changed a ton here, which is mildly sad.

I like the added mico interactions outside of MC's workplace.

: ̗̀➛ Anime (2024)

→ General thoughts

Out of every adaptation this stayed the closest to the original material. Honestly writing the analysis for the anime was really hard for me because there really isn't much for me to say. It fixed a big issue that was in the manga, and that is the lack of proper panel transition. The reason why I'm mentioning this point here rather than under any other adaptation is because this stayed the most loyal to the original material.

There really weren't any big changes so there isn't much to comment on. However, I set up a split screen between the anime and manga JUST so I could analyze things piece by piece and this is what I found:

After the conversation with Tsuge, it shows MC's walk home his contemplation about this whole thing, and his reaction to his friend being a virgin too. There are also some micro-interactions between the two (MC & ML) that were added, but nothing too different for me to specifically point out.

The scene with the cake guy was slightly changed here in the anime. The anime added an interaction between MC, Fujisaki, the boss, and other employees who were trying to find out what happened to cause the cake guy to get mad at ML prior to MC officially stepping in, something that didn't really happen in the manga. On that note, there were a lot of added micro-interactions between MC and Fujisaki.

A minor change that could simply be attributed to translation is that in manga MC said that he didn't hate the kiss while in the anime he said that it didn't bother him, just a small detail that made me a little sad TT.

There are some minor setting changes here and there, for example, MC originally gave Rokkaku medicine on the bus because he was car sick, in the anime he gave him medicine during karaoke because he was having stomach problems due to being drunk.

Dare I say that I HATED Rokkaku's voice actor, it's the same sound someone makes when they're nose is stuffy/they're not breathing through their nose. It got on my nerves. On a similar note, I feel like this shows how important voice actors are. I'm used to Rokakku having a younger, playful, and generally softer voice which gave him a carefree "he was the popular easy to get along with guy in high school". In the anime though because of his voice actor, his personality came off as "The really simple-minded comedic relief guy that secretly has lore". So interesting to see how even the smallest changes can completely change the impression of a character!

I kinda wish that the hot springs scene remained intact instead of it getting changed into a sauna because the concept of "Water conducting intense thoughts" is really funny. Though it was changed to steam to better fit the setting, I feel like it was an extremely unnecessary change.

The sexual harassment scene stayed really close to the manga but with greater emotional impact, specifically his facial expressions. Though the background music didn't really match the seriousness of the scene, his facial expressions and the general mood of what he was conveying (Since he was talking about how his character and hard work are reduced to the fact that he is good-looking), it's still a marginal improvement. This made me upset because the anime could've utilized more appropriate background music or just not add it at all. My ick with the background music was quickly resolved with the following scene where MC consoles ML after the whole ordeal. This makes me really happy because it, for the most part, achieved what the manga failed to do. Also, I find it funny here how ML specifically thought that the MC is a pushover because he lacks tact.

Flashback/ML's POV also came later than the Manga, thankfully a running theme between all adaptations. The selfie scene also changed, it was a lot less 'appropriate' here (not in a to the reader way but in a context way) because in the original they took the selfie on a company trip while here they took the picture in a random park.

The side couple comes here a lot later too, I think slightly later than the manga, which is weird but it also makes sense and flowed well here. I don't have much to complain about, I did like their interactions here a lot more though. I should also note that their relationship is slightly faster-paced than other adaptations.

The sound effects and OST were awesome though and really helped reinforce the emotional aspects of scenes. This also helped with the abrupt emotional changes in the scenes.

I do have to say that I had very high hopes for the anime because out of every adaptation, this has the most freedom in terms of properly communicating character dynamics and plot points. It can use a range of effects without looking out of place or weird because this is animated. This did NOT disappoint thankfully.

→ Rating ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

7/10

Oof, this was a hard one to rate, I saved it for last.

I don't know, out of every adaptation this was easily my favorite, but lets be honest...there are quite a bit of issues. I think that the main one is the background music for the sexual harassment scene.

"Mimi, why do you care so much about it?" Well, it's not necessarily because sexual harassment is a serious topic (which it is, but not the main reason why I'm so bothered), rather it's mainly because the male lead was venting about how all of his hard work is dismissed just because "he's pretty". I feel like this was a perfect example that encapsulated his main complaint about his workplace and the main reason why MC's actions really touched him. It's really important to his character so seeing the scene not be portrayed properly really grinds my nerves.

: ̗̀➛ Chinese Radio Drama (2019)

→ General thoughts

THIS WAS SO DIFFERENT. Take a seat because a yap fest is about to take place.

To be honest, this is my first time listening to a Radio Drama (yes a lot of first times here, I'm a sad media virgin, all I do is read shitty manhwa, manhua, manga & fanfiction and read the occasional web novel). I didn't know what to expect since the medium is pretty limited since the plot can only be conveyed through voices. This did not disappoint. The voice actors are super expressive and effectively communicate character emotions.

This starts off strong with an appointment with a psychiatrist. MC really thought he was going insane and honestly? I too would shove myself in a psychiatrist's office the second I started hearing people's thoughts. I loved this approach, super realistic. My usual ick of characters randomly manifesting powers in an otherwise non-fantasy setting is how they immediately accept it and adapt to it.

The first change is how he finds out about his ability, by far this is my favorite (touching a co-worker and hearing her cuss out your fellow employees and boss). We unfortunately didn't escape the ML glazing session (yes I get it he's so alpha in the company,,,,I heard the same sentence 10 times already from 10 different sources my brain is FRIED). GOOD NEWS though because MC also got a mini glazing session...ha you thought...the sec mc touched his boss he got brought back to reality (heard a bunch of insults about how dull he is).

The drama CD really REALLY enforces the fact that MC isn't liked by his fellow coworkers, for some reason everyone and their moms take pleasure in insulting him, which is my biggest fear. Imagine you develop the ability to hear people's thoughts only to find out that half of your workplace hates your guts? I'd immediately cease my oxygen dependence.

Also, we're back with the shitty co-worker. Honestly, it's hard for me to tell what is going on because many names changed which would've been fine if the OG plot was completely preserved except it's not. I don't have visual clues so I'm kinda tweaking.

Anyway, now on to the major plot changes:

Rokkaku is now a poor intern getting pulled into random tasks via MC's co-worker friend. For some reason, most adaptations tend to mess around with Rokkaku's character. Also, the elevator scene slightly changed, instead of MC trying to guess ML's crush he immediately reminded himself that he's experiencing a hallucination (which happens quite frequently throughout the radio drama. I think that I can safely attribute this change to the fact that he went to see a psychiatrist the second he noticed his newfound ability. Generally, it takes MC 10 thousand business days to come to terms with his new ability.

MC here is a lot more of a realist, not that he was particularly lacking in the realism department before. It just seems like a more prominent character trait here.

Here MC stays late because of his co-worker friend (maybe I should change his nickname to asshole #2). Also, MC here takes an obvious role in helping teach and instruct Rokkaku. We also get more character background info on Rokkau which I think is pretty interesting. Rokkaku here is a lot more responsible too. Also here instead of simply helping MC finish his work, ML instead offers to do the whole thing himself.

It takes a while for there to be any mention of his 30th birthday. The reason why MC slept over at ML's place also changed. Also I can't get over the scene where ML admits to the fact that he bought a set of PJs JUST BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THAT MC WOULD LOOK GOOD IN THEM???? No matter how many times I watch it I still find it wild LMFAOOO. Also for some reason ML undresses in from of MC and MC points out ML's muscles which is so different from the OG because originally it was because of the hot springs + MC never loudly commented on ML's physique. MC looked like a pervert LMFAO. Also, ML never mentioned that he worked out/kept up with his body for MC, so it made the scene a lot more awkward IMO. ML's house is also different, in here he has an extra bedroom while in the other adaptations, MC slept in the living room.

It was so adorable when ML came over JUST to cover MC with a quilt. Also, my guy was battling demons trying to stay a green flag.

They expanded a lot more on the BBQ scene, which was so nice! I loved seeing the two of them have a normal conversation for once, both gushing over their favorite manga. I feel like this made their relationship progression a lot smoother because in the other adaptations they never really had the opportunity to actually engage in a long and meaningful conversation. Most of the time conversations are very one-sided and awkward since MC is reading all of ML's thoughts thus decreasing the amount of naturally born conversation between the two. Not only do I like it because of their conversation but also their interaction flowed very naturally. This time ML was the one who held on to the vouchers (mildly similar to the Thai ver), thus when it was time to pay it was more so an act of responsibility rather than altruism. They also added a movie date after the BBQ, except MC dipped and ruined the whole moment.

Just like the Thai drama, it would be easier for me to list all the similarities than differences to the manga. I think that in this case, the many changes are easily justifiable because this format (radio dramas or any audio-only mediums) is really limited. Typically creators can rely on visual clues and/or descriptions to enhance character dynamics and interactions. Thus it's natural for the producers of this drama to drag out character interactions and add some to get the same feelings and character dynamics across. You can argue that audio-dependent mediums have an advantage compared to novels but there isn't a novel for cherry magic. You're adapting an audio-only drama from a written-visual medium, which is pretty different. You can easily translate written words to spoken audio but visual cues are lost to translation.

One problem...the sexual harassment scene here was portrayed very similar to the anime. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. The background music wasn't as bad but cmon.....

THIS HAS FIRE OPS AND EDS. I love the songs, honestly just listen to the radio drama for the music.

→ Rating ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

8/10

I really liked this one, again if we're going for accuracy then this would get a low rating, but we're not yahoo!

I really liked how the characters were portrayed, their relationships, etc. I feel like this version really perfected the characters.

I kinda wished that there was more focus on his life outside of the office and that there was more character background info.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Conclusion:

Honestly, my favorite part of doing this whole thing is seeing how culture impacts stories and adaptations. The two that changed the most details were the Thai and Chinese adaptations so it's pretty neat to see how Japanese cultural details were switched out. I think that the office worker environment and interactions between co-workers and the differences between the Japanese version, Chinese version, and Thai version are the most interesting. (yes repetitive but we're not in English class now are we?)

Every version is different, and I loved comparing and seeing how every medium communicates the story a bit differently. There are benefits and negatives to picking a specific medium, looking at Cherry Magic was an interesting case study (I know that I haven't gone into detail on how the specific medium caused changes and instead just talked about the changes but trust I was thinking about it.). I might do an analysis in the future solely focusing on that, but who knows.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

THANK YOU @mil0nes FOR EDITING MY GOD AWFUL WRITING. Hmu whenever you need a kidney I WILL give you mine (if we're incompatible then I'll sacrifice someone for you babe..Just don't quote me in a court of law xx)

If you read the whole thing then tysm !!

I'll probably make one for Semantic Error soon. ^^

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shadowmaat · 1 year ago

Text

Ethics vs. needs

I'm sure I've talked about this before but tumblr search is a shitshow and I can't find it. SO.

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. We know it. We say it. We understand it. So while I appreciate the folks making lists of "ethical" companies and "sustainable" businesses, it would also be nice if they could recognize the fact that the majority of people shopping at places like A.mazon, W.almart and T.emu aren't doing so because they aren't aware of better alternatives, they're doing it because they have no choice.

If I could afford to buy $60 tank tops and be comforted in the knowledge that the workers who made that tank top were appropriately compensated for their labor and the materials are all-natural and not killing the environment, I would. Since I can't, I buy $5 tanks of dubious quality from ethically ambiguous sources.

I understand WHY small businesses charge more and I agree that those things are worth it... IF one can afford them. But if you're going to make a list of alternatives to the Big Bads, you need to think about pricing, too. And I'm just not sure it's possible to find ethical businesses that are also affordable. The two don't seem to go together. There's a similar issue with "healthy" food vs. "junk." Saying that "you just have to shop smart and look around for deals" is, hmm... less than helpful. Not everyone has the time/energy/resources to "shop smart" and not everyone has a choice of where they can shop.

I'm not saying the small business lists are bad because they're very helpful to some people and can do a lot of good for those businesses in terms of advertising/getting the word out. I just wish folks would stop acting as if it's a matter of choice. 99% of the time, it's a matter of price and convenience. So yes, while it's possible to decide that a single $60 tank is "worth it," that same $60 could buy an entire outfit- or more- at one of the cheap scummy places. Stop shaming people for being poor. Remember what Vimes said about boots.

#no ethical consumption

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aaronstveit · 10 months ago

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swifties in my phone can we please have an honest conversation for a second before you decide you want me dead.

okay first i'll admit i should have said "threaten to sue" rather than "sue." that was my bad, i'll give you that. but it is very frustrating to me that a lot of y'all went directly to "OP IS A TAYLOR SWIFT HATER SPREADING LIES ABOUT HER" instead of simply contending with the fact that what she's doing is wrong.

i am not "spreading an anti-taylor swift agenda" (whatever the fuck that is even supposed to mean) nor am i "looking for a reason to hate her." i have been a swiftie for 2008. i was in the trenches defending her summer of 2016 receiving death threats for days. i am a swiftie. i do not have an "anti taylor swift agenda," i have an anti climate terrorism agenda.

it is so fucking frustrating how so many of you go straight to blind denial over the basic concept that taylor swift is a human being and therefore has flaws. i am very sorry to be the person to tell you this but she is not perfect. neither are you. neither am i. but the major difference here is that this flaw of hers has an impact on millions of people.

taking a 28-mile flight is ridiculous. full stop. it is wasteful and unethical, no matter who is on the plane. if this was any other celebrity, you all would be tripping over yourselves to condemn them so you could have the moral high ground. but because this is a celebrity that you worship like a god, you have to prove that it is actually the moral choice for her to do things like this.

a lot of people want to talk about safety measures and stalking concerns. yes, i think she truly faces more danger from stalkers than most of us will ever know. but the fact of the matter is that the entire world should not be footing the bill for her safety. it is her responsibility to find an alternative to flying her private jet everywhere. it may be less convenient for her, but she has an ethical responsibility to not kill the planet.

the student who posts her jet information is also not responsible for stalkers. he posts all info with a 24 hour delay, and again, this information is available to the public. i promise you that people who want to use plane tracking info to stalk her are going to the source to find the information in real time. and as this post points out, a very simple alternative would be for her to sell her jet and charter flights instead. that way, her name wouldn't be on the tracking information and stalkers wouldn't be able to track her. she is actively choosing not to do that.

i really really need you all to realize that by defending her (or any other celebrity) from any and all deserved criticism, you are not being a "good fan." you are, at the end of the day, defending a billionaire who is actively harming the environment. because stan culture has become about what "looks good" rather than what actually is good. this is not like 2016 when people turned against her because she was defending herself against two people who recorded a phone call with her, edited the footage, and then released it with the express intentions of getting her "canceled." i am not commenting snake emojis on her posts. i am simply saying that she is in the wrong and that there should be accountability for that. my original post didn't leave room for nuance because it wasn't intended to escape enclosure and, quite frankly, there is little nuance in carbon emissions. but a lot of y'all seem to think i'm here for some #taylorswiftisoverparty and that could not be further from the truth.

i'm tired of everyone holding her hand and babying her. she is a grown woman. she is intelligent. she knows exactly what she is doing and what it means for the rest of the world. she makes her own decisions. and honestly, i'm tired of holding y'all's hands and babying you because you refuse to acknowledge that your queen is in the wrong. it's very frustrating to watch over and over again as people abandon their principles the moment it becomes inconvenient for them. just save everyone the time and admit you have no principles.

ladies is it a #girlboss move to kill the planet so you can go to your boyfriend’s football games and then sue the college student who posts the public data about you killing the planet for “harassment”

#talking to strangers #anti taylor swift

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radfem-woman · 2 years ago

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All I can think about with that plarn post (crocheting from plastic bag strips) is the huge note posts of people trashing anyone who avoids animal product wool yarn because “the alternative is (usually) plastic!!!!”

And i mean like I’m someone dedicatedly avoids plastic as though I were allergic to it all. I hate it and its 24/7 pollution shedding behavior. I avoid industry harvested animal products but will use traditionally made ones.

But it’s still so funny to me how people are about plastic. Smugly aghast anyone would everrrr pick it over animal product material AND at the same time addicted to using gobs and gobs of plastic in their lives in addition to shitty industry made animal product material.

Where’s the hordes of people telling ms demeanor shes fucking up the environment making bags from plastic not (factory made, lots of pollution from the process) leather? A lot of plastic “vegan leather” or “vegan yarn” is recycled plastic. I’d don’t really like any of it, but it’s the same thing. Some of it meanwhile is like mushrooms somehow idk.

It’s just a sign of hypocrisy to me and how a lot of people hate vegans most because they are nervous about someone potentially being more ethical than they are, in a way they don’t want to commit to, and so need to tear it down by any means… even hypocritical means.

Meanwhile I’m not vegan but I can respect how a lot of people approach it and see no need to tell them a lot of shit marketed as vegan leather etc is plastic with that tone and intent. The “haha you’re a dupe and soooo much worse than all of us! Who use lots of plastic probably even more plus the animal industry product totally never ever use plastic” tone. It’s not hard to just say oh if you’re vegan and care about the environment, don’t fall for plastic replacements, here’s a list of nonplastic replacements, and perhaps consider certain used or responsibly/traditionally made animal materials are in this case better. But most people won’t because it was never about sustainability to them, it was an opportunity to cut down someone else.

That last sentence fr. A lot of people will just talk down about someone just so they can feel marginally better about themselves and say well at least I'm not like x all while avoiding looking at anything outside of themselves and the larger implications of the choices they make. Things would be a lot better with plastic pollution if the focus shifted to using well made ethically/traditionally sourced natural fiber and leather items that are made for longevity. Especially if they get materials or the items themselves from somebody local to them. Things that will not pollute the environment nearly as bad when the item becomes no longer useable. Its a struggle though because plastic is everywhere, and large corporations will jump to it because its cheaper for them to use. And people will go and buy those things because its cheaper short term for them too. Reminds me of something i saw a while back talking about how poorer people spend more because they can only afford the cheaper item that will last a short while and then can only afford the replacement of it and it becomes a cycle of spending money, while people who arent poor like that can afford to buy the higher quality item that will last for quite a while spending less in the long run because they only had to buy it once or maybe a couple times. I think its also that people dont know where to look for more ethically sourced materials because the market is flooded with shit and it can be hard to know where to start or what to even do. I can respect people trying to mitigate their waste with what they have available to them, and with stuff they already have that would otherwise go to a landfill. Though I agree that plastic is shit and we should all try our best to minimize our consumption of it. The hypocrisy of people criticising things like that in a condescending way while ignoring looking at their own consumption habits, and offering no tangible helpful alternative is really grating. Idk if my answer here really makes sense to ur ask but I get what ur sayin

#ask #anon

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ms-demeanor · 3 years ago

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Hi Ms Demeanor. I read your recent news post and was wondering if you knew any websites/newspapers that have generally reliable stories, but aren't super overwhelming? I know I should be better informed on what's going on in the world and my own country (I'm American) in ways that aren't looking at what people on social media are mad about, but a lot of news outlets I've heard about have just so much stuff. Hopefully this source would be a stepping stone to later feel less lost. Thanks a lot

1 - Whatever your local basically unaffiliated news provider is. This might be a local paper, it might be a local radio station, it might be a local TV station, but it is NOT the local alternative weekly or the local talk radio station.

This is difficult because a lot of local media is actually owned by bigger, biased distributors (in the US this is Sinclair Media with broadcast TV, for example).

Start super local, as local as possible - there is probably a weekly local newspaper that prints three thousand copies that get distributed at grocery stores and your closest library. Start with that, whatever that is. That is going to be the place where you actually learn about what's going on with your specific city council.

From there, branch out to whatever free, good-ish quality websites are local. I'm in LA so look at KTLA5. I'll also read the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the San Jose Mercury News. Generally you're looking for something that isn't screamingly biased, full of talking heads, 24-hours, or paywalled.

2 - READ. Even if I'm looking at KTLA, which is a TV station, I do not watch the stories I read the headlines, click the links to the stories, and will investigate further. Usually TV stories are sourced from newspapers or stringers so sometimes this means clicking over the AP to read 500 words of a story that only got 200 words on the broadcast. But READ. Broadcast news, ALL BROADCAST NEWS, has a time limit. These days there is less of a restriction on story length in print because it's all online, so you will get more news by reading it.

3 - Go regional. Look at the big regional paper's headlines or maybe even get a subscription. For me this is the LA Times, for you it might be the Chicago Tribune or the New York Times.

4 - Go national. READ (do not watch) the headlines on a national news station. CNN or Fox is actually better than the New York Times for this. You just wanna see if there's anything huge that you're missing that's being reported on by a national outlet. Read the World headlines and the US headlines, and hopefully everything big has been covered by another one of the things you've looked at.

5 - Go international. Go to a news source from in a language you speak that is not specifically produced in your country and look at the "US News" section. I like BBC, Al Jazeera, ABC.Net.AU, SCMP, and AP News for this. It is fucking BONKERS how isolated the US is in our news when it comes to looking at things from an international perspective. Go look up some of the coverage of the 2020 election from the BBC. It's so incredibly useful to see how other countries are describing your country AND it's also useful to see how other countries prioritize and organize world news.

6 - Find someplace that publishes in-depth investigative pieces and read at least a couple of them a month. I'm talking LONG investigative pieces. Five thousand words minimum. Buzzfeed on FinCen or Mother Jones reporting on prisons or the DailyBeast covering Qanon kind of long. DEEP investigations. Read OLD investigations. Read new investigations. Read about people who went undercover at Amazon.

Break this up into little chunks. If you get overwhelmed by the news in general (i can relate!) just look at the headlines and a couple stories in your local area and then check out US headlines on the BBC.

You don't have to read everything, it's impossible for everyone to be informed about everything, but start by at least checking local headlines and then check US headlines from a source outside the US.

Honestly, really, seriously, Buzzfeed News is a pretty okay way to get started looking at the news. They have a good mix of very short, superficial stories and in-depth coverage and they usually don't have so many stories in a day that you'll get buried just refreshing the page.

I'm hesitant to endorse all of their coverage because a lot of it is inane celebrity shit, even on their news page, and they do some stuff that I cannot fucking stand (the editorial decision to perpetually refer to Qanon as "the quanon mass delusion" makes me want to tear my hair out) but overall they aren't bad. Maybe check headlines on Buzzfeed and then search the headlines that you're interested in from Buzzfeed on the AP site.

Anyway, I don't do this all every single day. I will usually read headlines on one or two sites every day and probably find three long-ish stories to dig into, but I try to rotate through a lot of sources and if something from one source sounds weird I will check it against at least three other sources with different perspectives. It is actually, genuinely extremely useful to see how Fox-the-news-channel is reporting on immigration compared to how Fox-the-entertainment-channel is reporting on it compared to how Al Jazeera is reporting on it compared to how the LA Weekly is reporting on it.

But yeah, if at all possible you should be reading news from a variety of local, regional, national, and international sources. Once you get into the habit of reading news it is actually pretty easy to stick with, and the more news you read from a wide variety of sources the better you'll get at spotting inconsistencies, editorializing, and the absolute fucking crime that is headline writing.

(I have been a person who writes headlines, but not in this utterly toxic online media environment and I do not envy modern headline writers but I also cannot forgive them; knock that shit off dudes that shit is an ethics violation)

Anyway, that's probably a lot. Good luck.

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going-green-ish · 3 years ago

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Tom and I now manage to do a huge amount of our shopping totally plastic-free. I’ll do other posts on the non-edible side of shopping in the future and have already started with some bathroom and kitchen posts, but today I’m here to talk about ✨ f o o d ✨. This post is going to focus on fresh produce 🥦

Our current situation:

Fresh produce: We live in a town which has a farmers market every Friday and Saturday with loads of different stalls to provide most of our needs. We can therefore find plastic-free fruit and veg 9/10 (some is still cling-wrapped, but if we hit up the different stalls there’s normally one that has a plastic-free option).

To be inclusive, I feel like I should make a note on meat here. I'm veggie and strongly believe that environmentally, everyone needs to chill out on their meat consumption. However, putting my personal views aside, I acknowledge that lots of people are still meat-eaters and I want to give eco-alternatives to them, too. If you are a meat-eater, then try sourcing your meat more responsibly from places such as The Ethical Butcher. As far as the animal agriculture industry can be "good", this is the "good" type of farming.

If we can’t find a plastic-free option? Green beans are an example of something that can be a bit hit-or-miss in the plastic department. Sometimes the stall has them in a big box to grab handfuls of, sometimes they only have them in plastic-wrapped trays. At this point, I personally choose to boycott the plastic version and find different green veg to substitute in if needed. Not always an option depending on what you’re trying to buy and what you need for your diet, but I do it as best I can for non-vital ingredients.

The unavoidables: There are still plenty of things that are plastic-wrapped and that I can't boycott. I eat a lot of peas and cheese as a vegetarian, to get my protein in. Peas are very seasonal, so I get frozen bags from the supermarket which is a plastic that isn’t recyclable, even through Terracycle. Cheese packaging is an issue normally as well, but thanks to a Terracycle drop-off nearby, I can at least recycle the plastic rather than throw it in the general waste.

Our previous situation:

When we lived in London, we didn’t have a farmers market nearby us to get our fruit and veg from. We ended up doing a bit of a combi job between the local greengrocer and the supermarket. There was a lot of plastic in our lives still then, but we could get major fruit and veg without the plastic this way. Some things were unavoidable and we still brought in more plastic than we could have, simply because we were earlier on in our plastic-free journey. We used some hacks to try to minimise the waste though.

Things you can start doing today:

These are hacks that have been spoken about a million times before, but here are some tips on what to do if you have no markets or are unable to access them for whatever reason.

1. Bring your own bags.

2. Buy the fruit and veg that isn’t in plastic whenever possible. Support your local greengrocer if you have one. Find substitutes for the ingredients that you can’t find plastic-free where possible.

3. Buy bigger bags of things you know you’ll use. Getting pasta? Grab the biggest bag they have. You use less plastic buying one 3kg bag than you do buying 6 x 500g bags. This obviously assumes you will be able to transport the bag and also store it at home. Not all supermarkets do large bags of less used staples, but rice, pasta and oats tend to be available in bigger batches.

4. Explore your options. Different supermarkets sell different sized bags of staples. Look around the shops near you.

5. Check the reduced section at the supermarket. These are items that will be going off soon according to their Best Buy dates. They will be disposed of in a huge food waste heap of plastic if they aren’t bought. A lot of things can survive a day or two or more past their Best Buy dates. For foods like meat, freeze whatever you won’t eat on the day you buy it and it should be fine.

6. Boycott what you can. Make substitutes where you can.

7. Buy glass, cardboard, paper or metal over plastic where you can.

8. If you’re veggie or vegan (or just cutting down on meat), avoid the ultra-processed stuff like Quorn etc. It’s not great for your health and it adds plastic. A lot of meat substitutes are soy based, which isn't planet friendly. Force yourself to think about what you’re cooking for yourself and see what alternatives you can do.

9. Frozen veg in plastic bags can be better than fresh veg in some situations. My example of peas from earlier is one. If I was to source fresh peas right now, they would likely be grown abroad with a large footprint behind them. Frozen peas I can buy in big bags and they’re British peas which were grown in the summer and frozen. In the summer, when local peas hit the market, I plan to bulk buy and freeze them myself, but in the meantime, this is the compromise.

10. Say no to the receipt whenever you can. The paper isn’t recyclable.

11. Buy bigger pots of things you know you’ll use before they go off. If you can’t find milk, yoghurts, cream and custard etc. in glass (very rare and often very expensive), then buy the biggest bottle or tub you think you’ll get through. Get one big tub of yoghurt and portion it out into smaller containers at home rather than a 6 pack of snap-pots. Get the big block of cheese.

12. See if you can re-use or up-cycle any of the plastic you do buy. Growing up, my sister was obsessed with coleslaw, and we had millions of little tubs lying around the house. My mum would use them to store dog treats in, little bits of electronics like spare fuses or small light bulbs, she’d use them to portion out treats to us in our school lunches, we used them as tubs for mixing paints in when getting artsy, she used them as starter pots for growing seeds etc. etc. There are lots of ideas out there if you look.

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mukagen · 3 months ago

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ok actually fuck it i will do that but put it under a read more. if u do not like my opinions don't bother me about it i'm here for a good time this is JUST MY THOUGHTSTREAM.

for starters, i played this game trying to highest support EVERYONE and didn't recruit anyone so it wouldn't affect my perspective.

so all in all i liked the BL route a lot more than i thought i would. as my friends who like fe3h know, the fandom gets testy when you say u like a lord but honestly i never understood the notion of making the lord you like the most Ethically Sourced War Figurehead(tm) of the three.

the idea of dimitri/edelgard/claude needing to NOT have the label of imperialist / 'conqueror' is so strange to me bc then the alternative is like. oh nooo ... i am a ruler .... oh this extra land kind of just fell into my lap ... now i must be like Shakespeare's caesar and refuse the land three times and also frown VERY HARD while i accept it otherwise i will be fandom interpreted as a bad person and a war tyrant ...

but then i kind of had this moment where i was like ok and if they all are what then. i think every lord has good and bad qualities and if you play their route their route makes them very sympathetic to YOU but at the same time YES they're still the leader of a nation and they are at war and they are killing people and so Frowning so the homies know I think Invading is BAD seems ... idk. kind of stupid to me? babying the lords so that they can somehow seem ethically better for ultimately achieving 1 of 3 versions of the same ending ("now I am the final Lord of all of Fodlan") just makes them less interesting to me. like shit let them be imperial because they ARE and trying to write that part out is just silly. like oooo no they didn't SEIZE this land we just won a battle here and the other guys ran away and the villagers pledged to us but i don't want to INVADE or anything could you IMAGINE !!!! < -- how some of these scenes played out

ok now onto dimitri. i didn't expect to like him as much as i did. i don't think he was lying about being a kind person i think he was just a lil (a lot) mentally unstable as well.

intsys always has a talent for approaching very heavy topics and then only going a certain depth with it. dimitri's 'white saviorism' was part of it. like they sure wrote that in. but then wrote in dimitri and dedue talking about it and dimitri acknowledging the power dynamic but also deeply wishing it wasn't there and expressing the urge to be rid of it. like they wrote in a very ... ehhh trope but then wrote the character criticizing that very trope. i wouldn't call that good writing, but i also wouldn't fault the character for it.

the blue lions route doesn't get as heavy into politics as you almost wish it does; instead it focuses on the personal relationships of the house itself which i did find very compelling.

ingrid ... ima be so for real; i expected worse. that does not at all excuse her bias against dedue but once again intsys had her have a prejudice against duscurian people and then had her desperately seek the truth in order to change what she always knew and then later apologize which none of the other racist characters do.

i will NOT call good writing but just like w/ putting a power dynamic of white saviorism w/ dimitri and dedue only to have dimitri acknowledge and condemn it ... why did they do that? is there a better way they could have done those things? yeah probably. dedue def doesn't have to forgive her for any of that tho and neither does the player in my opinion i just think they were bold / odd for writing that

i wish they had made some random NPC racist instead. luckily ingrid is so boring of a character that i don't care about her either way and don't understand why she had so many shooters back in the day. she is neither interesting nor sexy so i don't get it. at least with hilda i know people ignore her racism because of her boobs. ingrid aint even got none of that goin on. i digress

moving on. based on the f4's lack of knowledge that the duscurian people were innocent, it seems like dimitri didn't tell them. i wonder why that is, when he took a duscurian vassl? my guess is that given rufus and cornelia's manipulation, when he first started saying the duscurian people were innocent they were quick to make it clear they would make it seem like he was crazy / didn't see what he saw. which would THEN make sense as to why dimitri kept that information so close to his chest and couldn't do anything with it until he either got proof (which he was seeking, albeit in a cuckoo way) or became king (which he couldn't do if they positioned him as crazy when he still lacked support). i found that kind of an interesting perspective

the character who surprised me the most was sylvain. i know that i have hated that guy for years but i actually quite like him now. it was his support with dedue that did it for me -- where he basically said he didn't gaf what anyone said about him talking to dedue, and that he thought the duscurian people were innocent. like ok sylvain you ate that one little thing. he's a raging misogynist but it's also a form of self destruction and i think when you send him to a war to die in both post ts and hopes he stops doing that so he can be fixed. by ME of course ..... (yes i picked him up) ....

i find the gautier family in general soooo cool. i liked them a lot. i could write a whole separate essay about them but i will spare you all that for now.

felix ... um ... ah ... eto .... i no longer think he was (intentionally) racist because i think he would have called anyone a dog for serving dimitri. HOWEVER, like with ingrid i don't understand why he has shooters in houses because that being said he is still INCREDIBLY annoying to me. i will admit hopes felix was a lot less of a cuntiferous bitch so he was more tolerable in hopes but in houses he's so fuckin rude for no reason and no i don't think his traumatic backstory is an excuse because everyone has one Susan

MERCEDES ........ her story is so deeply tragic but it's like HIDDEN behind an empire plotline but honestly i would say of the blue lions her and dimitri have the darkest pasts.

annette was cute. i liked that she was the only person felix couldn't be mean to i guess.

ashe we already knew i liked ashe so i don't have to expend a paragraph saying something that hasn't changed. i feel ashe's character stays the same personality wise from houses to hopes, but he's less tragic and deepened by hopes' plotline

i keep mentioning hopes because for the blue lions at least, hopes supplements the lack of a political plotline in houses. rather than just focus on the characters hopes actually deep dives into the issues in faerghus and deepens the knowledge you build in houses

the lore of faerghus, duscur, and sreng is very cool and compelling. very very fun to worldbuild in. all in all i found pretty much all of the characters more interesting or better than i originally thought. some surprised me in how much i liked them. others surprised me because i genuinely thought they were worse.

claude in the AM route. bro was straight up dumb and i can say that bc he is still my favorite lord. i like how in one route he's very calculating and is navigating a war between the empire and the kingdom and then in the AM route he's like hi. have my country. and my bow. goodbye!

the abovementioned did make me realize that in each route it will make the lord of that route look better and the other two look bad or incompetent in comparison -- so, to me at least, it solidified the idea that there is no "right" route, it's just 3 different perspectives. what's right in one country won't work in another due to lack of resources or social constraints but it doesn't mean the other country doesn't desire the same things.

one day i'll do the crimson flower route but for now i had a great time in Fire Emblem: Russian Ireland

got so off the internet i almost thought writing an essay about dimitri / my blue lions playthrough would be acceptable and then i got to the first bullet point and i was like "wait a second" and remembered where i was

#* general‚ ooc.#and yes i checked this is 1400 words #kyri and their long ass ramblings ... a trade staple

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mbti-notes · 4 years ago

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So, I'm an INTJ who often (especially in the past) have tried to be open and supportive to friends and an ex of mine when it comes to certain problems. I noticed that I often jump to trying to solve their problem for them or offering suggestions and end up neglecting their emotional needs in the end—there's maybe a 50% chance that I was helpful at all. The other alternative is accidentally being taken advantage of and used as a crutch, which I'm luckily done with. Is there any better way to help out when I can hardly understand how a friend feels outside of just being frustrated or anxious?

Practical information and advice about handling emotional needs is already covered in the Emotional Well-Being section, please read. I will use your question as an opportunity to elaborate on the concept of helping, since people often ask about it.

Being able to help effectively is not just one particular skill but a set of skills. I use the word “skills” because they can be learned as long as one has the motivation to study, practice, and improve. Most people know that helping skills are invaluable in a variety of professional and personal contexts. I would also argue that helping skills are essential for personal growth because they play an important role in overcoming the self-inflicted limitations of egocentrism in the process of ego development.

1. Empathy Skills

To be an effective helper, the first thing you need is a decent level of emotional intelligence. This involves having good emotional awareness, knowing how to identify and label feelings and emotions correctly, and knowing how to express feelings and emotions constructively. It is very difficult to understand the emotional life of others when you aren’t even able to understand your own or, worse, when your own emotional life is stunted, repressed, unstable, or dysfunctional. Work on improving your emotional intelligence and, if necessary, learn through healing your own emotional issues and wounds. If you suffer from all sorts of unaddressed or unresolved emotional issues swirling around in your unconscious mind, you are very likely to project them onto people, which will handicap or undermine your attempts to help them.

From having a healthy emotional life, you are able to practice the emotional empathy that is necessary for having a caring and helpful attitude. In human beings, empathy is a very natural emotional response to suffering, due to our evolutionary history of being a cooperative species. Unless you have neurological damage/deficits, you should be capable of feeling bad when you see someone else feeling bad, if only because you know how shitty it is to experience badness. That is the basis of empathy in a nutshell.

I use the phrase “practice empathy” because, when life is busy or too self-involved, it is all too easy to brush others off. Worse, some people are very averse to negativity and actively suppress their empathy so that they never have to feel guilty. Suppression of feeling, taken to extremes, may lead to callousness or aggression. Practicing empathy means that you actually stop and take the time to get in touch with your empathy, to really feel it, whenever you witness suffering. By actively deepening your empathy, you have a natural source of motivation to lend a helping hand.

Emotional empathy is how you nurture your moral character and moral virtues, i.e., to become an ethical, kind, caring, and compassionate person. By contrast, cognitive empathy is about having the ability to construct an accurate theory of mind and using it to assess human problems carefully, so that your solutions take into consideration how each vested party will be impacted. Another term that people use fairly synonymously with cognitive empathy is perspective taking. It involves putting yourself into another person’s shoes in an effort to understand: how they think, what they feel and why, what motivates them, what they need and desire, and the behavioral strategies that they are using to achieve their goals. The assumption is that, when you understand someone’s perspective more fully, you are better positioned to respond appropriately and effectively.

One of the reasons that people are drawn to type theory is because it offers insight into important and legitimate differences between people. Different people have different priorities, needs, and goals based on their cognitive functional stack and their life circumstances. This should always be taken into consideration when you’re trying to help. One of the most common pitfalls in helping people is operating on the assumption that they are similar to you, which leads you to overlook differences and apply the wrong kind of help. When you’re trying to construct a theory of mind, type theory gives you a leg up by opening up your mind to different possibilities and pointing you in useful directions for investigation. For example, if you are N and the other person is S, then you start off by understanding that your way of perceiving situations is very different from theirs, perhaps completely opposite, which should give you pause and force you to learn more about their cognitive process.

Emotional empathy and cognitive perspective taking must go together, otherwise, one or the other may lead you very astray. Emotional empathy, on its own, isn’t enough for being a good helper. In fact, some people have very strong emotional empathy and make situations even worse because they just act immediately on their feelings without any consideration for the consequences. For example, some people reflexively jump to defend perpetrators of violence because they empathize with them more than the victims. Cognitive perspective taking, on its own, isn’t enough for being a good helper. In fact, many people use their perspective taking ability to cheat, swindle, or manipulate for selfish gain. For example, con artists and snake oil salesmen often prey on people’s fears and insecurities to turn a profit. Thus, treat emotional empathy and cognitive perspective taking as equally important but separate abilities.

2. Relationship Building Skills

While empathy is useful for building moral character and perspective taking is useful for constructing an accurate theory of mind, the key to helping is learning how to apply these concepts within the context of relationships. You may feel deep empathy but fail to help. For example, you just freeze up like a deer in headlights once you see someone crying and sobbing in front of you. You may have an accurate theory of mind but still approach the situation the wrong way. For example, you correctly pinpointed your toddler’s fear of large crowds, but your paternalistic approach is to throw them into the middle of a huge crowd and force them to deal alone.

To avoid these kinds of problems, you should always approach helping as a collaboration. Collaboration means that two people put their minds together for a shared purpose. To collaborate well with someone requires two things:

i) Trust: Trusting someone means that you believe they have your best interests at heart. To trust is to have an open heart, which means that you give people the benefit of the doubt. Trust is very important when you’re trying to give advice. If someone trusts you and gives you the benefit of the doubt, they are better able to understand your intention even if you say the wrong thing or offer unhelpful advice. Trust helps to quickly smooth over misunderstandings or miscommunications by reminding us that people are good and mean well.

ii) Rapport: Positive rapport means that two people are able to communicate comfortably because they care about each other as well as speak freely because they do not have undue fear of judgment or punishment. Good rapport puts everyone at ease, which helps to maintain an open mind. Rapport is very important when you’re trying to give advice. If you have positive rapport with someone, they will be more open to entertaining new ideas and solutions. Positive rapport makes problem solving a more easygoing and even enjoyable process.

Needless to say, if you don’t have someone’s best interests at heart, then you should stay out of their business until you do. Helping someone should ultimately come from a place of care. Different people have different trust thresholds (often due to past trauma), so you may have to work harder to earn some people’s trust than others. To earn trust means to prove to someone that you care about them and can be relied upon. This generally involves being attentive to their needs, offering support when needed, honoring your relationship duties and responsibilities, and keeping your promises.

Needless to say, if someone doesn’t feel comfortable talking to you, then you shouldn’t try to force them. Make an honest judgment about whether you’re the best person to help them or not. If you’re not the one, you can still offer help, but don’t get offended if they don’t take you up on it. Different people have different conditions to be met before they feel comfortable enough to share their private business, so you may have to work harder to develop rapport with some people than others. Positive rapport is basically good communication, so work on your communication skills as needed.

Learn the sorts of words and behaviors that help put people at ease. Learn to listen intently, patiently, and empathetically. Learn to pause and ask the right questions when you don’t understand. Learn to offer feedback in a kind and constructive way. Learn to be less judgmental, impatient, or critical, i.e., the kinds of traits that cause conflict, distance, and fear in relationships. Learn to avoid prejudice and mindreading, i.e., the kinds of behaviors that cause harmful and gross misunderstandings between people.

3. The Helping Process

Once you’ve used your empathy and perspective taking skills to establish a good foundation of trust and positive rapport with someone, then you are well-positioned to help them. Always remember that human affairs are an art - not a science. Humans are complex and each one of us unique. There’s no “methodology” that you can follow perfectly to handle every relationship perfectly. A big part of being successful at relationships is simply to be adaptable. Observe and listen more carefully so that you know when it’s time to change your approach.

That said, there are some general guidelines that will help steer you in the right direction whenever you feel lost. Professional counselors are specifically trained to help people with their problems, so there’s a lot we can learn from their training process. I will summarize and adapt a commonly used three stage model of helping that anyone can apply to their relationships:

Stage 1: Gather the Facts

The person experiencing the problem is the one who knows it best. Therefore, the first step isn’t to panic about “what should I do”, rather, always start by getting them to elaborate, in as much detail as possible, so that you understand the situation fully from their point of view. Ask several open-ended questions to give them the opportunity to freely describe the situation, what happened, what may be causing the problem, how they feel about it, what they have or haven’t done about it, etc. After hearing them out, summarize the situation in your own words and ask them to confirm whether you’ve understood everything. The key skills needed in this stage are curiosity, listening, and verifying.

Stage 2: Encourage Awareness and Insight

Oftentimes, people aren’t able to tackle a problem on their own because they don’t know exactly what the problem is - look into their mind and you will see a giant mess. Giving them a chance to express their thoughts and feelings out loud is sometimes enough for them to understand the problem and come up with their own solutions. You should always encourage people to think for themselves whenever they show the tendency, because ideas always stick better when they come from oneself. This also addresses the problem of people becoming too dependent on you. Ideally, the goal of any good helper is to eventually make themselves obsolete, by teaching people to stand on their own.

If after elaboration, you’re still not clear about what they need, then be more direct in getting that information, usually through making more direct inquiries. What you do at this point really depends on the situation and the kind of problem you’re dealing with. It may be enough to ask them whether there’s anything you can do to help and, if so, what would be the best way to help. They might say that they’re not looking for a “fix” but simply want someone to listen, then step back and listen with empathy. You may ask them point blank what exactly it is they need or want. You may ask them what they hope or wish for. You may ask them about what objectives or goals they’re aiming for. You may ask them about the obstacles and challenges they’re experiencing. You may ask them whether they would like your help in analyzing the problem.

Don’t make assumptions about what they need when they haven’t even expressed their needs, which means that you should NOT be stepping forward with a “solution” until you’re absolutely sure that it’s what they want. The key skills needed in this stage are providing emotional safety, encouraging people to reflect more deeply, and inquiring into psychological motivations.

Stage 3: Implement Action

This step is only relevant if they are committed to solving the problem and want your help with it. Collaborate with them to analyze the problem by determining its cause(s), entertain various ideas and solutions, and make a list of all the choices available to them. Help them evaluate their list of choices by illuminating the possible effects/outcomes, pros/cons, or cost/benefits. This will allow them to make a more informed and intelligent choice.

Remember that they are ultimately responsible for choosing what to do - not you. Even the best advice will fall flat if the person doesn’t feel like they can carry it out. THEY have to feel comfortable enough with the choice to put it into action. This means that you must always have an eye on their comfort level. When someone expresses any kind of uncertainty about whether they can implement a solution, it is often a subtle request for more/better support. If that’s the case, go back to stages 1 and 2 to dig deeper into what’s holding them back. It may be an internal or external obstacle, and once you’ve identified it, you can help them remove it.

To implement an idea usually requires coming up with a practical plan, strategy, or method of attack, so help them draw a feasible roadmap. Set up concrete measurements or benchmarks to measure progress or success. Sometimes, they may need your help to break a big plan down into smaller steps in order to avoid feeling anxious or overwhelmed. Sometimes, they may need you to educate, guide, or mentor them to learn new knowledge for overcoming a particular challenge or obstacle. Remember that what seems easy to you may be very difficult to them, so don’t make assumptions about their capabilities. Monitor their progress and offer the appropriate support whenever you observe that they are faltering. The key skills needed in this stage are brainstorming, critical analysis, planning and organizing, quantifying progress, encouraging people to improve, knowledge building, and providing emotional support as necessary.

4. Boundaries, Boundaries, Boundaries

It’s very important that you maintain proper boundaries when helping people. You are not a professional counselor and, even if you are, there should always be a sense of equality and reciprocity in personal relationships. A healthy relationship cannot be one-sided, unequal, or exploitative.

Respect Your Boundaries: You must have your boundaries to protect yourself from exploitation. There are many people out there who have no qualms about taking advantage of kindness, so don’t allow such people to worm their way into your life. Only get involved when someone genuinely needs your help and you are quite confident that they will benefit from it. Remember that helping should ultimately set people up to be independent. If you keep people dependent on you, then there’s some ego problem that needs to be addressed on your part.

Respect Their Boundaries: Remember that everyone has their own life to live. Honor and appreciate individual differences. You may enjoy helping people and that’s fine, but there must be an element of selflessness in your help, so that you don’t get too invested in what other people do/don’t do. Once you start to place unreasonable expectations on people, you get yourself all mixed up into their problem, and then you start to show visible frustration, impatience, or disappointment. Then they might start to fear disappointing you and hide from you, they might start resisting your advice, or your help might even backfire spectacularly. In other words, your “help” just complicates and even worsens situations when you can’t properly respect people’s right to make their own choices in life.

To set proper boundaries circles back to the first point of having good emotional intelligence. You have to be aware of your part in the situation, the effects that you’re feeling, the effects that you’re producing, and monitor for negative feelings and emotions that would lead you to do something regrettable or harmful. Having good emotional intelligence is very important for good decision making in relationships and even life in general. I’ve already provided articles and book suggestions for learning in depth.

#helping #emotional needs #needs #emotional intelligence #empathy #compassion #boundaries #trust #rapport #communication #perspective taking #ask

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technoxenoholic · 1 year ago

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chrome tanning was invented in the 1850s. people have been making and using leather for tens of thousands of years. the existence of a harmful industrial process for the creation of leather in the modern day does not make it inherently toxic to produce just because the low cost of that production method made it popular post-industrial revolution.

and the matter of deforestation is not limited to leather production. yeah, obviously deforestation is bad. obviously destroying the rainforest is bad. obviously child labor is bad. obviously pollution is bad. do you want me to argue with you? i'm not going to argue with you. those things are bad.

(and they are not problems that are exclusive to the leather industry.)

but it is a very bad-faith argument to say "the most common process to produce the material is bad, therefore the material itself is bad" and not "the most common process is bad, therefore we should seek to use the better, safer, less-exploitative production methods that already exist, and do so on a more sustainable scale". because leather is not, in fact, inherently bad.

succinctly: the problem is not the leather. the problem is fucking capitalism.

and the problems with leather production can be fixed! but plastic production will always involve the oil industry and all of its many, MANY environmental problems (oil spills ahoy!), will always involve plastic being shed into the environment, and is limited, and therefore should be limited to uses that are required, like medical equipment that has no functional alternative, rather than being frivolously used up in fashion where several good alternatives very much do exist and have existed for far, far longer.

and to address your tags as well:

#hopefully plant alternatives will become good enough to be an option for everyone who needs a new product

for the purposes in which i am deliberately using leather, i don't want plant-based alternatives. i need leather. plant-based alternatives do not work for me. i require certain aspects of actual leather that plant-based alternatives cannot replace. when plant-based materials will do, i am already using plant-based fabrics. i'm using any affordable wool and silk i can get my hands on, too!

it's great to have options. just remember that your favorite option becoming more accessible, while fantastic and worth fighting for, should never, ever shut down existing options that other people are counting on.

#(side note: 'they're going to die someday anyway' should probably be avoided as it gets used for things like denying people medical care)

hi. i'm physically, neurologically, and mentally disabled. i do not have a family doctor. i am under-diagnosed and my government would literally rather i kill myself than get me the care and support i need. (google "medical assistance in dying". i'm not fucking kidding.)

my extremely summarized argument against the "but killing animals makes me feel bad" stance of popular veganism is not an argument in favor of FUCKING EUGENICS. i am not comparing PEOPLE to animals when i am literally just talking about animals. killing animals humanely is not the same thing as leaving disabled people to suffer and waste away in poverty. sincerely, fuck off with that shit.

and to conclude my post for everyone else reading: buy locally-sourced leather from the native communities in your area! if you don't have any (or the ones near you don't offer leather products) then try to find one reasonably close by with shipping options! if even that doesn't work, remember that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism and if you need something made of leather OR pleather you're not a bad person for the actions of the giant corporations that may have produced it!

leather > pleather

leather > vinyl

leather > "vegan leather"

putting a bunch of fucking plastic into the environment just to use an inferior textile that you'll have to replace in a few years is not morally superior to using leather from animals that were going to die someday anyway and getting a longer-lasting and better-wearing garment out of the deal

i'm not going to harp on people who choose pleather for financial reasons (you have to get what you can afford, trust me, i get it) but i have so much hatred in my heart for people who act like using genuine leather is immoral

#stfu blue #ableism #i hate capitalism #fashion #disability #will tag if needed #i have run out of steam and spoons here

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max1461 · 2 years ago

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Let me start by clearing something up: I believe there is a distinction between what is ethically optimal and what is politically optimal. Just because I endorse something ethically doesn't mean I endorse any particular political program to achieve it, and indeed just because I disagree with something ethically does not mean I wish to oppose it politically. This is sort of a prerequisite for pluralism, which as we've discussed before I'm very into. Anyway, case in point: in the OP, I said that nearly any mass transfer of wealth would be (ethically) justified, not that it I would support any political proposal for a mass transfer of wealth. Why? Well, among other reasons, because political proposals can go wrong, there's uncertainty built in. When talking about ethics abstractly, we can simply assume a priori that everything works out as we expect it. When speaking practically, we can't.

In your last paragraph, you say:

I don't believe that max1461 is choosing an inelastic problem on purpose to use it for power, I think he's legitimately feeling emotionally motivated about this, but part of the reason I might seem "less empathetic" is that I'm avoiding the necessary means to reach certain outcomes. Human freedom means human freedom to screw up, even on a pretty big scale.

And I think my position is inelastic not for any of the above reasons, but simply because it is an abstract ethical claim rather than anything approaching a concrete political proposal. Thus, it builds in neither any of the epistemic caution nor any of the concessions to practicality which are the source of "elasticity" in actual political positions. And, fundamentally, I agree with you that freedom means freedom to screw up.

And I also agree with you that, both in a practical sense and in an ethical sense, we have to start from acceptable means and work to determine how much poverty can be alleviated within them (this is nearly a tautology). Notice that I did, after all, say "nearly any" mass transfer of wealth would be justified. Acceptable means in the ethical sense are relatively absolute, but acceptable means in a practical sense are more flexible: we (humans) should first try the things that are relatively ethically low-risk, and only if they fail move on to riskier alternatives.

Where you and I differ, I think, is that I believe acceptable means (in both senses) are not even remotely close to being exhausted, and the authoritarian measures you propose are so far from our current position that they are barely even worth mentioning. "How should society respond if the only way to ameliorate immediate suffering is mass violation of rights" is a meaningful ethical question, to which I frankly do not purport to have answers, but it is not where you start. If you are being responsible, you start by saying "let's see what we can do without authoritarianism, without human rights abuses, and at least figure out where that takes us".

This is basically what I was getting at when I said:

We can argue over what an ideal solution looks like, and indeed I think this is important. I would vastly prefer non-violent solutions to violent ones, voluntary solutions to forced ones, and so on. And I will not buy in to the bad-faith rhetoric by which people try to defend wholly extraneous harm as being necessary for the above goals

I was writing this principally as a preemptive argument against my post being used by USSR apologists, because while to Soviet government did reduce poverty in Russia, I think they also did a bunch of (putting it bluntly) random bad shit that was at best dubiously necessary for this purpose. They, of course, claimed it was necessary, as you are claiming (or at least implying) that your authoritarian measures would be necessary. Bad maybe we should exercise some epistemic caution when human life is on the line.

My point being, you say:

If we don't know how to create [enough medical personnel] via social programs - that is, not everyone is actually equally capable of passing medical exams in any way we can achieve systematically through mere education or nutrition supplement programs / etc - but we do know children of parents who can pass medical exams are more likely to be able to pass medical exams, and the natural rate of people being born who can pass medical exams is below the target rate ("too few doctors, too many patients")...

But, ok, let's take a step back. Like you, I'm dubious of a lot of social sciences research, and I think "through education alone, we can ensure enough doctors to provide for the population" et al. is an extremely optimistic position that may not in fact be true, for a number of reasons. The thing is, the social science work that I'm dubious of also includes heredity research, and I think "by breeding doctors together forcibly, we can ensure enough doctors to provide for the population" is pretty much an equally suspect position. You seem a lot more confident in the latter than the former, but I don't really see why you should be! Even if you take the most biologically-determinist position you there is—which I'm doubtful can be backed up—you still have to grapple with the fact that "can become a doctor" and "does become a doctor" and "does become a good doctor" are not synonymous, and your scheme address only the first, with little to say about the more proximally relevant second and third.

In light of this fact, in light of the uncertainty here in the efficacy of various solutions... do you not think it would be prudent to go with the solution that does not involve massive authoritarianism? Especially authoritarian control over something which has so deep an impact on a person's happiness and wellbeing as when and if they have kids, who they have kids with, whose kids they raise, who they raise those kids with (remember, kids have to be raised!), and so on? The cost to human wellbeing, freedom, and dignity here is massive, and for what? The fact that maybe, conceivably, we can imagine a world in which nothing else works? That's a whole lot riding on a "maybe"! Even if we were sure nothing else worked, even if we knew for an absolutely fact that the only two options were "eugenics" or "eternal mass poverty", I don't think the answer would be obvious. Much less when the truth of what works is more in the realm of "idk".

So, what are these less-authoritarian, more acceptable solutions? Well, to name a few:

In the "never going to happen because they are genuinely radical" camp, we have

Free education for doctors, engineers, and other vital personnel, not gated by test scores or credential requirements that may be difficult to obtain in poor regions. Do you risk training some doctors that might not turn out to be good doctors? Sure. The alternative is that they weren't good doctors anyway, because they didn't have any training.

Send trained en masse personnel from rich countries to poor ones to work on economically useful projects, free of charge or at discounted rates, and with no policy strings attached.

Send industrial equipment and other elements for building of the productive forces to poor countries, free or at discounted rates.

Provide very low- or no-interest international loans, with no diplomatic or policy strings attached.

And in the "never going to happen because the inherent incentive structure of global geopolitics means that every government is basically evil" camp, we have

Provide any international monetary aid or loans with no policy or diplomatic strings attached.

Stop engaging in foreign adventurism, wars of aggression, and regime change (principally advice for the US and France, but it goes for everyone else too). These things a priori should be expected in increase instability and hurt local economies, but the fact that they are widely engaged in for the purpose of enabling economic exploitation by the imperial core makes them consistently far worse.

Consistently prosecute multinational corporations for labor violations in foreign territories.

End needless sanctions regimes on enemy states; specifically this means US sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, probably a significant portion of those on Russia (this is more complex for nuclear deterrence reasons), end the Cuba embargo, etc.

Probably a bunch of other stuff. Third-worldists get in my notes.

Amid all the discussion of various higher political ideals that goes on on this blog (and whose importance I absolutely stand by) the following must be said unambiguously:

The conditions that people are living under in the poorest places on Earth are extraordinarily horrific. The fact that these conditions continue, despite the very real possibility of ameliorating them from the perspective of production capacity alone, is a crime against humanity. Nearly any mass transfer of wealth from rich countries to poor—whether peaceful or violent, voluntary or forced, socialist or capitalist—would be an active good, and almost no matter its methods it would be a lesser crime than the current status quo.

#society

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