#IE it's still racist

[theskeletoninthegarden]

Saw a weird sticker on the way to work that said Say No to Rice

[saturnsfather]

i know its because of the announcement for next year but what a time for me to get reinvested in a video game about governmental animosity towards science and the protection of human life, authority figures being inherently untrustworthy because they always have their own hidden agendas, the issues inherent in a majority white occupation of land previously inhabited by an indigenous population now used almost solely as a workforce and talked about/treated like animals, and the devolving of trust in any kind of authority or control during a period of mass death because anyone who has authority or control is only ever doing things for their own benefit and couldnt give less of a shit about the regular people being affected by the death and destruction they in fact helped to cause by their own negligence of anything resembling moral or ethical frameworks when trying to grab for power . actually i think everyone should play pathologic right now, now that im reading that back,

[the-land-of-women]

Sis why are you racist

Sis what

[transmutationisms]

from a non-academic, i find parts of comphet to be useful (heterosexuality becomes compulsory when you’re raised in a heterosexual society) but the foundations . suck. what do we do with theories like this, that have touched on a truth but also carry a lot of garbage? can we separate the truth from the founder?

i have to be slightly pedantic and say that i don't think rich's essay is an example of this phenomenon. my central issue with her formulation is its bioessentialist assumptions about human sex and therefore also sexuality. if i say "capitalism includes economic mechanisms that enforce heterosexual behaviour and exclude other possibilities", then what i mean by "heterosexual" is plainly not the same as what rich means—and for this reason i would seldom formulate the statement this way, without clarifying that i am talking about the enforcement of heterosexuality as a part of the creation and defence of sex/gender categories themselves. so rich and i do not actually agree on the very fundamental premises of this paper! rich was not the first or only person to point out that economic mechanisms as well as resultant social norms enforce heterosexual pairings; i actually don't even think the essay does a very clear job of interrogating the relationship between labour, economy, and the creation of sex/gender; she means something different and essentialist to what i mean by sex and sexuality; and i think her proposed responses to the phenomenon she identifies as 'compulsory heterosexuality' are uninteresting because they mainly propose psychological answers to a problem arising from conditions of political economy. so, in regards to this specific paper, i am actually totally comfortable just saying that it's not a useful formulation, and i don't feel a need to rescue elements of it.

in general, i do know what you're talking about, and i think there's a false dichotomy here: as though we must either discard an idea entirely if it has elements we dislike, or we accept it on the condition that we can plausibly claim these elements and their author are irrelevant. these are not comprehensive options. instead, i would posit that every theory, hypothesis, or idea is laden with context, including values held and assumptions made by their progenitors. the point is not to find a mythical 'objective' truth unburdened by human bias or mistakes; this is impossible. instead, i think we need to take seriously the elements of an idea that we object to. why are they there? what sorts of assumptions or arguments motivate them, and are those actually separable from whatever we like in the idea? if so, can we be clear about which aspects of the theory are still useful or applicable, and where it is that the objectionable elements arise? and if we can identify these points, then what might we propose instead? this is all much more useful, imo, than either waiting for a perfect morally unimpeachable theory or trying to 'accept' a theory without grappling with its origins (political, social, intellectual).

a recent example that you might find interesting as a kind of case study is j lorand matory's book the fetish revisited, which argues that the 'fetish' concept in freud's and marx's work drew from their respective understandings of afro-atlantic gods. in other words, when marx said capitalists "fetishise" commodities or freud spoke about sexual "fetishism", they were each claiming that viewing an object as agentive, meaning-laden in itself (ie, devoid of the context of human meaning-making as a social and political activity) was comparable to 'primitive' and delusory religious practices.

matory's point here isn't that we should reject marx's entire contribution to political economy because he was racist, nor is it that we can somehow accept parts of what marx said by just excising any racist bits. rather, matory asks us to grapple seriously with the role that marx's anthropologically inflected racism plays in his ideas, and what limitations it imposes on them. why is it that marx could identify the commodity as being discursively abstracted and 'fetishised', but did not apply this understanding to other ideas and objects in a consistent way? and how is his understanding of this process of 'fetishisation' shaped by his beliefs about afro-atlantic peoples, and their 'intelligence' or civilisational achievements in comparison to northwestern europeans'? by this critique matory is able to nuance the fetish concept, and to argue that marx's formulation of it was both reductive and inconsistently applied (analogously to how freud viewed only some sexuality as 'fetishistic'). it is true in some sense that capital and the commodity are reified and abstracted in a manner comparable to the creation of a metaphysical entity, but what we get from matory is both a better, more nuanced understanding of this process of meaning-making (incl. a challenge to the racist idea of afro-atlantic gods as simply a result of inferior intelligence or cultural development), and the critical point that if this is fetishism, then we must understand a lot more human discourse and activity as hinging on fetishisation.

the answer of what we do with the shitty or poorly formulated parts of a theory won't always be the same, obviously; this is a dialogue we probably need to have (and then have again) every time we evaluate an idea or theory. but i hope this gives you some jumping-off points to consider, and an idea of what it might look like to grapple with ideas as things inherently shaped by people—and our biases and assumptions and failings—without assuming that means we can or should just discard them any time those failings show through. the point is not to waste time trying to find something objective, but to understand the subjective in its context and with its strengths and limitations, and then to decide from there what use we can or should make of it.

[gougarfem]

so many of the trans community's arguments fall apart when questioned but nobody is willing to sit down and follow through a conversation about it. for example, i can't count the number of times i've been told i need to educate myself and talk to trans people and then i won't be such a hateful terf. when i say to these people, i am educated, i came out as trans ten years ago, i'm on testosterone, i live the same reality as a transgender man - i still don't believe you can change your biology, and i still think men and women are socialised differently and gender is a patriarchal construct, and changing your gender only serves to reinforce that construct - what now? now that you understand i'm like you, i'm not hateful, i just don't share your beliefs, do my opinions hold some validity? invariably i get blocked, told that i must be lying about my own dysphoria, or branded some flavour of -phobic. if the trans community wants to be taken seriously they need to address their collective fear of being questioned or divulging from the acceptable narrative. they need to be able to have conversations where the other person uses 'incorrect' language or questions something that should be a god-given truth (ie. trans women are women) without shutting that person down or deflecting with accusations of hatred and transphobia. i am yet to find a single trans person willing to sit down and talk to me and defend their own views in a reasonable manner - instead, i get accused of things they assume radical feminists do and believe (wanting trans people dead, hating gnc women, upholding racist beauty standards), receive personal attacks on myself and often my disability and ethnicity, or most commonly just get blocked. i believe anyone is entitled to hold any opinion, but when you're demanding everyone else adhere to that opinion you need to be able to defend it, be open to criticism and be able to explain exactly why you believe what you do without using roundabout logic. do better.

[shesnake]

Having now seen the film, it's laughable for Scorsese and Dicaprio to lie like this. It IS true that the Killers of the Flower Moon film shifts focus off the FBI, unlike its source text by David Grann that centres the story on the white investigators of the Osage murders and how the various jurisdictional issues led to the formation of the FBI, but all they have done is focus on a different set of white guys ie. the white perpetrators played by Dicaprio and Deniro.

Lily Gladstone does indeed consume the screen but her actual time on it is disproportionately short and her character under-explored, which is crazy for a nearly 4-hour film, and other Indigenous characters are given even less.

I do think KotFM is ultimately a good watch, its use of authentic Osage Nation language particularly outstanding, but Scorsese did very much still "make a movie about all the white guys" critiquing the depths of their evil, racist violence by showing their perspective and less from the Osage victims.

Coupled with Lily Gladstone submitting herself for Best Lead Actress consideration (very risky, she would've had Supporting in the bag) Scorsese and all these other white guys are lying for clout, and marketing their film about a horrific tragedy to First Nations peoples as if it was something they oh-so-graciously made from their perspective when it is still in fact told from a white gaze.

[triviallytrue]

I'm trying to write this post about identity-blind admissions/hiring vs affirmative action and I keep running into the idea that this is mostly just lipstick on a pig; I care about fairness and diversity in the abstract, but equalizing the racial makeup of the US ruling class just isn't a political priority to me.

It's good to try and eliminate the explicit racism in the system, but as long as a racial gap in socioeconomic status exists, a racial gap in ability will as well - between two equally talented student populations, the one with greater access to resources, less proximity to violence, more stability and support, etc will always perform better, even in the absence of explicit discrimination.

Even if you construct a perfectly "fair" system, it will ultimately just replicate the material inequities that exist in the broader society. If you construct an equitable system (ie, one that creates a ruling class that matches the racial distribution of society at large), you still won't have fixed the underlying issues that caused the discrepancy in the first place, and by fiddling with the system, you'll piss off a bunch of other people (in this case, Asian Americans) in the process.

The liberal theory seems to be that if we find the Barack Obamas of the world, who would've been denied admission to elite institutions due to racial discrimination, and elevate them instead, the material problems will work themselves out. But I'm just not convinced this is true - it seems to be operating on a sort of pseudo-ethnonationalism where minorities in power will work to the benefit of "their people" and eventually even things out.

But with the way ruling classes work, it seems like most of the time the ruling class becomes "your people" for new inductees, and everyone else becomes, well, everyone else. Without leaning too hard on a Marxist framework, it seems like the ruling class empirically has a strong sense of class consciousness.

And even when this isn't true, when you encounter people in power who seem to genuinely want to change the world for the better, it's hard to imagine any racial divides being magically healed without some engine of economic redistribution behind it, and this is a task that requires more than just individuals who care about it.

None of which is to say that it makes sense to just throw up your hands and say "society is racist, so I guess it's okay for Harvard to be racist too." By all means, hold their feet to the fire as much as you can. But it's hard for me to write about this without feeling like it's all downstream of the central goal of the leftist project, making a more equitable world.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Some thoughts on Dragon Age Veilguard a couple weeks after playing/reviewing it.

Obligatory disclaimer, feel free to skip to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Note: My reviews for DA and my blog posts about DAV in particular aren't edited. I don't have the time, energy, or heart to edit them properly.

It's been 16 days since I finished DAV.

And sadly, my opinion still hasn't changed. Especially after learning about Joplin from my friend's artbook. (Joplin is the original concept and art concepts for the game. It had so much we were all really desperate to see. It was gorgeous. And they scrapped it.)

I don't know why they scrapped it, it was exactly what so many of us wanted.

Honestly? I don't care why. I'm sick of all the excuses people keep making for BioWare turning out such a shitty game.

Were there reasons and difficulties I don't know and will never know about? There usually are.

But those things are honestly irrelevant when it comes to producing a quality product.

I work my ever loving ass off to make sure my books are good. And I don't have a team to help me and a 250 million dollar budget. I do everything myself because I have to.

Indie studios turn out fantastic games with cool worlds, good fighting systems, and interesting monsters all the time. With some help and some budget, sure. But not likely on the scale of what they had for DAV.

I'm both a creator and an editor. When you're making a product for sale, it's incredibly foolish to change a series title too much from what worked before. Sure, fix problems, streamline stuff, but people generally don't play RPGs for anything past the worldbuilding, writing, story, and characters. There's action RPGs, sure. I'm playing one now and loving it (Greedfall).

It's a solid RPG that feels like an RPG. (DAV did not.) The fighting system works. The companions are actually useful. They kill bad guys all by themselves! It's quite refreshing tbh.

When you're creating something for fun, sure, do what the fuck ever you want as long as it isn't harmful to someone else. (Don’t put words in my mouth. By harmful, I mean specifically things like racism, sexism, ableism etc. Not whether someone dislikes the colour green and thinks the word 'triggered' means unhappy or uncomfortable. It doesn't. It's specifically a needed mental health term.)

When you're creating a product for sale, you make decisions. IE. I chose to write a reverse harem series. That's a choice influenced by the business reality that my queer books hardly sell at all.

I still love the characters and world I built, still love the plot etc. But it was still a decision on my part. Because my work of words is my only income. I'm disabled and recovering from a pulmonary embolism. My partner is recovering from a broken back and has at least one, possibly two more surgeries to go. We don't get very much help from anywhere. Money is so tight it squeaks. I'm hoping with the decision to write m/f reverse harem, my sales will improve (They already have with only two books out. Third before end of year.)

So. No. No more excuses for BioWare. They've always, from rumour, had a lot of control over the games they make, even if EA does pollute the studio by owning it.

Someone made the choices that resulted in such a shitty game. Someone approved the terrible (in some cases, racist, sexist, and ableist) writing. Someone thought the editing was just fine (it really really is not).

Someone (likely Epler given what he's said in interviews) decided that it was a good idea to Disney-fie the most recent addition to an adult, dark fantasy game that has historically delivered a lot of horror elements. While somehow condescending to kids at the same time.

Someone decided to remove so many of those dark fantasy elements. It's especially obvious in the not-fucking-darkspawn. They made them goofy, not scary and vaguely horror inspiring. But it's all throughout the game.

Someone made decisions. Those decisions made an awful game.

Someone decided tying your companions' skill points acquisition to their level of bond with you was a good idea. Maybe it looked good on paper. I don’t honestly care. It made it nigh impossible to get them high enough to be actually useful. Meaning your OP character always has aggro. Fine, I guess, if you're a tank player, but what about the rest of us?

Someone decided to remove blood splatter from a freaking BioWare game.

Someone decided to go with that wretched art style.

Someone decided nerfing the rogue class was a good idea. Why even have them? They're just light skirmishers, not rogues. Without, y'know, the rogue skills that make a rogue.

It was a decision, each and every time.

Someone decided everything about that game.

So miss me with the excuses.

I would like actual reasons, but I highly doubt we'll ever get them.

Someone made unwise and often foolish decisions during development of DAV. The results are clear.

Simply by the fact they aren't releasing sales numbers... that indicates it's probably not doing well. Larian basically called their earnings for BG3 out weekly.

It mostly just makes me sad now. DAV could've been fantastic. Because of decisions human beings in positions of power made, DAV, while having some good parts, just sucks.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Would anything she say still land and/or be relevant? I find that anything she tries, ie. The hairdresser event was met with a thud. No one was talking about it except for People.

It depends on what Meghan has to say.

The hairdresser +1 bombed because no one cares about Meghan’s hair.

But Meghan releases receipts about who the royal racist is and what they did? Meghan publishes her memoir with stories about what the BRF is really like? Meghan drops divorce papers on Harry and accuses him of assault/physical abuse? Meghan publishes her letters from Charles where he discusses the royal racist? Meghan inadvertently confirms she bullied Charlotte and her staff? Meghan admits to tampering with the line of succession?

People will definitely pay attention then. I know I will.

It’s why Meghan needs the BRF and Harry more than they need her - she is truly nothing without them and all of her PR nowadays keeps confirming that.

[eri-pl]

Lack of redemption arcs in the Legendarium

Surprisingly, I can't find many, if any at all.

I mean real redemption arcs ie character is evil / has done done serious evil at the start and they put actual work and things happen and at the end they're less evil and do less evil (or none at all).

(And ideally, they don't die at the completion of the arc but separately later or not at all.)

I don't mean things like "did evil things out of trauma it ignorance" (therapy or education is a different thing from redemption. All are great, but different people need different of those.) or "did one very minor thing and is sorry" (it's not an arc, it's something smaller). I mean the real deal.

There are implied redemption arcs (elves in Mandos in general), something that feels like a referenced arc but never described (Osse), a heavy edited story that at one point kind of feels like a redemption arc (Galadriel), failed attempts (all the baddies especially Smeagol and Mairon)...

I don't remember book Boromir well, maybe he... But he's not evil, just a little weak. He does very little wrong. He's more serious than makes bad choices.

Elu Thingol sort of has an arc on "don't be racist against humans" but then dies partially at being racist against dwarves so I'm not sure that counts either.

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, whose greatest crime is being a mean relative. I guess this counts?

Even in Numenor, nobody gets it.

I know it's a modern trend to give everyone redemption arcs, but I would expect, with all the talk about mercy and pity, to see some actual results, more results than "yay, we got the evil defeated because we were good to the bad guy". With all due respect. That's a big result too. But anyway.

I suppose Tolkien just didn't vibe with bad people. He survived the war and I guess it needed more... How to call it? More thinking on terms of "if you cross this line, you're lost". I know theoretically he didn't see it like this. But in practice, you may only go so far (and it's not far) until you're beyond repair.

I don't like it. It's not how the world works. I went further.

Also, another thing that irks me tremendously, but it's an observable rule in all Legendarium:

When your aesthetic is dark or wrong, you are beyond salvation.

You like industry? Bye. You don't like light? Bye! You look ugly (not plain, just ugly)? There might be a few exceptions of Elves who went through Angband, but generally: bye. You don't laugh and feel uneasy in company? Out to the void with you, go join Morgoth. You are depressed and not in a nice (Frodo) way, but in a cold way that makes you feel cynical? Bye. You live at the East and like sun more than noon? You're probably evil too.

I may be oversimplifying a bit, but not by much. It is a thing.

That's not how things work!!!

Seriously. I was there. I was all those things. I am dinner if then still and don't consider it a problem.

I hate this in the books. I love Tolkien's work and what he tried to do, but I feel like I'm some places he failed at it dramatically and the general feel it's not faithful to his intentions.

I hope this rambling is understandable enough, I'm bad at English, especially when ranting.

Luckily, there are fanfics

[serpentface]

you may have already stated this somewhere but I’m curious who the Wardin Empires main enemies are?

Gonna just go ahead and attach the map for this one

Public Enemy Number One is Finnerich, which is a major competitor for control of the Mouth seaway and has a long, long history of conflict with other peoples along this seaway (Wardi and Burri/Titen/Kos most significantly). They dominate trade WITHIN the Viper seaway (which is not a terribly important trade route beyond the regional scale, as it dead-ends without connecting to the ocean. If anyone ever manages to dig out that 50 mile canal, it will become EXTREMELY important), while Wardin currently dominates the Mouth (which is the eastern entrance to the Very critical inner sea trade routes).

The Finns have a strong sea raiding culture and have attacked coastal towns and villages in Wardin (and in their neighboring Royal Dain kingdoms) for centuries, and carried out attempted sieges on the city Odkoto (godsmouth) twice- one that failed near completely, and one during the vulnerable period post-Imperial Burri withdrawal that failed to end in a sacking but utterly devastated the city's population and is still remembered as a collective trauma. They're also known for piracy (perhaps disproportionately, as Imperial Wardin has an entire fleet of state-sponsored pirates) and frequently raid ships on trade routes in the Mouth. They have been in some level of conflict with the Wardi peoples for centuries, and this has intensified tremendously in the modern period with Imperial Wardin emerging as a dominant sea trade power.

This intensified conflict culminated with Imperial Wardin carrying out a successful siege and notably brutal sacking of its capital city, capturing and executing its royal family, launching a land invasion, and forcing the territory into a partly occupied tributary relationship (occupied in the south with a planted loyalist government and military contingency, unoccupied in the north with nominal self-governance retained in return for economic tribute). Occupation was mostly 'stable' for about 20 years until the tributary north fully organized itself into a separate kingdom and declared war on the loyalist south. Imperial Wardin's intervention in this conflict was a DISASTROUS defeat on their part. All of Finnerich is currently free, and in the messy process of stabilizing post-occupation and forming alliances with neighboring Royal Dain kingdoms to strengthen its position.

The Royal Dain (collection of peoples east of Finnerich along the Viper's north coast) are similarly enemies to Imperial Wardin, though not of similar importance due to being located within the Viper and their activities mostly affecting these less critical waters. Imperial Wardin carried out a few sieges of major coastal cities during its expansionist era, but has since kept conflicts mostly naval. Some Royal Dain groups also have raiding and piracy cultures, though most of their land raids affect coastal North Wardi towns and villages (which themselves are mostly tributaries, and have to rely on internal warrior culture rather than military support for defense).

(TANGENT: The Wardi term translated as 'barbarian' dead literally means something akin to '(far) northerner' and is mostly applied to these North Viper peoples (though in practice is a generalized racist and xenophobic epithet that is sometimes applied to peoples/individuals who are not actually 'northern' at all, its connotations are being ''''uncivilized'''' via disdainful cultural and religious practices). ((The term translated as 'heathen' in contrast is seen (at least by most Wardi speakers) as a neutral, non-derogatory descriptor of peoples of different religious faiths (ie you are either of the Faith of the Seven Faced God or you aren't. Those who aren't are heathens, and not All heathens are terrible evil barbarians), though the term is obviously othering and often distinctly xenophobic in practice.)))

Imperial Wardin has much more minor enemies along its sea trade routes. It's been a state of naval hostility with the Yuroma city-states of Suurota and Ummo (located southeast of the Blackmane Mountains) for literal decades (as they are major competitors in the White Sea trade system), but this has not yet threatened to spill into land conflict or attempted sackings. (This is largely due to Imperial Wardin being preoccupied with Finnerich and considering its White Sea trade dominance less critical)

Imperial Wardin is currently in a very close political alliance with the Burri Republic (which is a separate entity from Imperial Bur, and originated as an internal coup ousting the last remnants of the crumbling empire) (not a republic by modern definition btw), maintaining close trade ties and a military alliance, and thus some of Bur's enemies are de-facto Imperial Wardin's enemies. Finnerich is the main enemy of both states, but Bur is also in conflict with sea powers along the western Inner Seaway. Imperial Wardin has not Officially declared war against any of Bur's non-Finn enemies, but utilizes state-sponsored pirates to raid them while maintaining a veneer of uninvolvement.

It has many internal enemies in the sense that a lot of its claimed lands are tributaries (retaining self governance and not being directly occupied in exchange for tribute, mostly of agricultural goods). This tributary system has been more or less 'stable' for the most part, but obviously results in uprisings and reprisals. The Imperial Wardi military originated as a conquering expansionary force to subjugate neighboring lands into tributaries, but this period of rapid expansion was brief, and has slowed to a virtual halt in recent years (due to internal instability and a government unequipped to maintain control of its own claimed lands). Most of the military is devoted to naval forces, and those who aren't are stationed strategically to quash potential uprisings of tributaries (rather than to conquer new ones).

The group that has been most consistently At War with their tributary rulers has been the south-central Hill Tribes located around the Yellowtail Valley region, northwest of Erub. The majority of the Highlands is fully independent with no tributary relations - this is largely due to inaccessibility, relatively poor agricultural land, distance from major trade routes, and in a few (diminishingly rare) cases, Actual Political Alliances With Respected Boundaries (The Ephenni Wardi tribe and Urbinnas river hill tribes have a long history of both positive and negative interaction, turned squarely positive in an alliance against Imperial Bur. The province of Ephennos maintains mutualistic trade relations with them to the present day). The Yellowtail Valley region is an exception- it has highly fertile agricultural land (hosting the source of the region's longest river and second largest lake) and is of strategic importance to the Yellowtail trade route, and as such many of its people have been forced into tributary relations with the province of Erub. This control has been reinforced with the dominant Naig-Troibadnnas tribe being given special trade privileges and military support against their own enemies to encourage loyalty, but many clans in this part of the region frequently practice raids on the Yellowtail trade route and some of Erub's villages and towns (this is not a Purely retaliatory practice, but has intensified SUBSTANTIALLY as means of recouping tributary losses and as reprisal for military action).

All of the region's other native ethnic minorities have experienced a history of land conflict (often predating the rise of Imperial Wardin and the Wardi national identity). The current range of Cholemdinae territory is heavily diminished from its original extent due to land conflicts between the primarily nomadic pastoralist Cholemdinae people and primarily settled agriculturalist South Wardi (both of whom actually stem from a fairly recent common ancestor- the South Wardi were essentially a branch of Cholemdinae that first diverged by adopting settled agriculture). Modern conflicts in this case rarely involve military action and tend to be direct skirmishes between farmers and herders. Jazaiti lands have largely remained intact (due to being mostly unsuited for agriculture), but many of their traditional fishing grounds have been heavily diminished in conflict with Imperial Wardi fishing and trade vessels. The Wogan people originally inhabited most of the region's east (and formed the city that would become Erubinnos). Their kingdoms within these areas were conquered in conflict with Wardi tribes Prior to the formation of Imperial Wardin, and a few others were sacked during the state's expansionist era (remaining Wogan territory is diminished but still pretty substantial, comprises everything between the state's easternmost claimed extent and the Blackmane mountains).

(TANGENT: The Loberan people are notable as linguistically and religiously Wardi, but with very significant Wogan ancestry and fused Wardi-Wogan cultural elements (and a unique dialect). They derived from an alliance between an eastern proto-Wardi tribe and Wogan kingdom that gradually merged into one group by ~300 years BP. Most in the contemporary consider themselves Wardi, but retain a strong sense of individual identity beyond just that their province's subculture.)

Most of the collective North Wardi peoples are under tributary rule (and are commonly considered Not Actually Wardi, or 'Heathen Wardi', as most groups speak Finnic language family tongues and predominantly follow Old Wardi faiths, or heavily syncretic folk variants of the Faith of the Seven Faced God). Their relative isolation and distance from the major cities has lent to open conflicts being few, but there's been a history of direct conflict over the Sons of Creation site. This crater lake has long been sacred to (and fought over by) most of the proto-Wardi tribes who existed in its proximity. This status has been retained in the Faith of the Seven Faced God while also being retained by the northern Wardi tribes that Did Not assimilate into contemporary Wardi national religion. There are several North Wardi groups that claim the territory as their sacred site and consider it desecrated by the presence of the Faith of the Seven Faced God (which many Old Wardi religious practitioners consider an invasive foreign element). This has resulted in open conflict over the site, and the Imperial Wardi military has been utilized to murder and drive out the North Wardi peoples who lived in its immediate surroundings. The site hosts a permanent contingency of soldiers to maintain the state's hold on it.

[joesalw]

i just think it’s crazy that she released a song with “1830 without the racists” and swifties are chill with that. what the fuck. i feel that, as a black person, it was and is alienating being online with hundreds of swifties that seem to ignore racism — not only with this stupid horrible verse (like seriously WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEIA TO EVEN WRITE THIS SHIT?), but with all the ratty situation; i have diehard swiftie friends and they’re like “yeah i still like ratty” and idk it just makes people seem untrustworthy. and it’s weird that if you complain about racism in the music industry, swifties will tell you “well you guys [ie. black people] only talk about this” or “without this excuse you have no arguments”. you can’t say something’s racist if white people don’t agree with you — and it’s getting tiresome

I'm so sorry anon. But what i think is the reason for swifties being the most racist fandom ever is that taylor herself is a racist. I can't believe how she's pissed at her own fans for calling her out upon dating a racist bigot man. On the other hand she meticulously controlled the ice spice situation to overshadow matty's racist past. And how stupid she is to think that nobody was racist in 1830 like bffr it was worse back then. She's such a spoilt white brat i can't–

[zephyrstargame]

well here's something I can do!

this is a little spin on an idea i've been seeing around that i think is wonderful... I personally, am not in the best financial place to be donating, but i can use my platform as a game developer to help out and do something cool at the same time :3

In exchange for donating esims to gaza, I'm gonna populate the world of Zephyr Star with your characters as NPCs! currently: OPEN!!

Here's the deal-- scurry on over to gazaesims.com to figure out how to buy and donate an esim to the people who need em-- any plan works for me, as long as you're gettin something out there!

then slip into my DMs (or anywhere else you can contact me directly) and show me a screenshot of the email, preferably with timestamps for proof that it's from after this post was posted... or really, any proof that you did do the thing-- also show me:

a reference image for what character you want me put in the game

what this character should say as an NPC (just a few lines at most) (optional; if you'd like i can just write some general dialogue instead)

how you would like to be credited in the in-game credits (ie what name i should put)

below the cut are some submission guidelines and extra notes, please also read that if you're interested :>

here are some general submission guidelines:

nothing too lewd, please!

or racist

or otherwise offensive

fandom ocs MIGHT be fine if they're Legally Distinct enough from the source material, but try not to get me sued here

In general, this game's world has No Humans, but that's not a strict requirement-- just a general suggestion

and keep in mind that characters with super intricate details might have to be simplified in order to work as pixel art

otherwise, anything works! furries, robots, sentient objects, your cat, whatever

and here's some notes, so you know what to expect:

i'll take anywhere between a few hours to a few days to finish, depends on how i'm feeling... either way, i'll tag you in a new post when i'm done!

the character will be done in small pixel art, with maybe some additional effects if i feel it works for the design

i will adjust the sprite size depending on the character-- an average sized character is drawn on a 32x32 canvas but if it's like a giant or really tall or something, i'd make it bigger so that the scale is accurate

everyone also gets a zoomed in headshot for the dialogue portrait

no secret bosses, shopkeepers, or other special story purpose for now, sorry! these are just some guys that stand around and say 1 or 2 lines as you go about your adventure

im putting the characters in various places at random, but if you want your guy to be in a certain type of location in-game let me know

this game is STILL in relatively early development-- but i do promise that each and every submission will be in there by the end! it might take yeaaaars for the full game to finally be out, but i'll be posting screenshots as I put em in the game so you know im not slacking around :>

and alongside the screenshot, i'll also post the sprites on their own if you'd like to save them for yourself

legal stuff uhhhhh im not good at legal stuff-- by participating, you are giving me permission to use your submitted character in the final game-- credit will be given in-game where you would expect to see it (the credits) and i will not claim ownership of any of your guys

(cartoon mafia boss voice) if at any point you want your character scrubbed out of the game, or you want anything changed, let me know in my DMs or anywhere else you can contact me and *click* *sinister laugh* we'll make it happen

no money goes to me ever, im not even gonna be the middlesnake between you and the esims-- i just think its less of a hassle to work this way -w-

did i get everything? i think that's everything... if i forgot something important sorry i'm a scatterbrain failgirl who has never done anything like this before im trying my best okay

may the rift be filled with your cool little guys! but more importantly, let's keep gaza connected! free palestine! 🍉

[feygaleh]

I'm a currently reconnecting reform Jew who was raised completely Secular and Acultural... I was anti-Zionist for a long time and I consider myself to still be but in my journey through reconnection I became more involved in Jumblr and it's hard to not fall prey to the Zionist rhetoric people keep spreading on here. I need to read the words of an actual Jew and not just another goy on why Israel is bad because otherwise I fear I will actually be gaslit. Do you have any recommendations on resources by Jewish people about the topic?? Or even some words you can provide yourself?? Thank you and I'm sorry for bothering you...

hey anon! thank you for being patient with my reply, i was pretty busy the other day and wanted to put real care into getting these resources for you

firstly, if you’re looking to find a better hub of anti zionist jews to unlearn any propaganda with, @stoptheantisemitism is a great place to start. from a former zionist israeli(iirc, correct me if not) jew who unlearned propaganda over time. they are a great inspo in the jewish community.

another great source is the documentary “defamation” by yaov shamir https://youtu.be/CTAjc1OSrmY?si=NsRJLOsxjlFPNSWC

ultimately discussing how zionism, israel, and the IDF preys on the “you’re unsafe anywhere but here. only in israel can you be safe to be freely and fully jewish” which is just textbook. textbook. brainwashing. i mean the amount of zionists in the jewblr tag alone treating any public hate moment as a “see! see! this is why we need israel!!” all of the attempts israel does to go above and beyond is not an actual act of care but an act of public manipulation.

not a source but when i went to gather this link for you i saw a comment that phrased it beautifully. they are so convinced that they are so deeply hated and can only be safe here and it is so strange not to mention, i hate to say this because i know its going to be misconstrued, very identical to cult indoctrination and brainwashing tactics

theodr herzl himself literally said antisemitism will be our greatest ally and he described israel as a colonial project. like the entire foundation of this place is so clearly propaganda

ie the recent “”””pogrom”””” in amsterdam began with zionist jews being publically and loudly racist to a group of people who eventually attacked back. they of course were being antisemitic in their words but the actions would not have happened if they weren’t provoked. but israel of course “comes to aid” these “poor victims” so NOW everyone’s like “see this is why we need israel!!! we aren’t safe anywhere not even europe” which is so exhaustingly ridiculous

it’s all curated. it’s all on purpose. israel wants the people who support them and get shit for it to hit the news. they want these attacks to happen so they can swoop on and “save” them and “prove we need them” but this was NOT a pogrom this was NOT provoked by antisemitism.

not to mention how conservative/orthodox they all are. many orthodox groups won’t even acknowledge us reform jews as jewish. they won’t recognize our interfaith relationships as decent, our kids as actually jewish, our identity as jewish, converts as jewish. etc. i’m not saying this from a place of bias. it is something my rabbi often openly discusses. the first thing he told me when i told him im a lesbian with a catholic girlfriend is “orthodoxy and the local chabad will never recognize your marriage as a jewish marriage. will never recognize your kids as jewish kids. same sex marriage is not legalized in any of the 15 marital courts in israel because of the way the country operates” so on so on. israel claims to be so pro lgbt but can’t even bend any of their rules to allow gay marriage? it’s just insane. this has nothing to do with israeli propaganda it is just a criticism i have on parts of judaism

several kinds of interfaith marriages aren’t recognized in israel.

never again. for anyone. the ISJN (international jewish antiozionist network) https://ijan.org as a very good program they run.

with multiple chapters in multiple countries they also provide a wordpress they compiled on the israeli attemp at worldwide repression

that INCLUDES testimonies against israel predating 2023. in their education programs they detail being anti-racist details the NEED to be anti-zionist

zionism and american politics are very intertwined so i dont understand why nonamerican zionists always attack nonzionist american jews. it’s very odd. much of our government lobbies for israel as often as they can. the veterans at my shul often argue in defense and against israel just depending on where their morals lay. it permiates american political cultures, especially jewish american political cultures. though most of the time im greeted with “bold words from someone who has never been in the middle east.” and that is so odd considering they know nothing about me. no i haven’t. i have absolutely no money to travel. israel offers birthright but why would i ever take them up on the opportunity for indoctrination? that’s what it’s for. the more people who come to israel and like it the more israeli citizens they have. the more citizens they have the more they can make my countries politicians lobby for “antizionism DOES equal antisemitism” which is so factually and morally untrue on so many levels.

israel is still actively killing everyone they need to under the guise of hamas. i implore you to go look at the ceasefire agreements hamas has tried to put out for the IDF by the way and see exactly what terms the IDF disagreed to bc it is VIOLENTLY and BRUTALLY inhumane. this is not in agreement with hamas but in disagreement with the IDF.

for further historical and political resources i encourage you check out this page https://ijan.org/resources-2/ i know im linking them a lot but its a great hub of everything i wouldnt linked you anyways

israel and the IDF are actively killing innocents for no good reason outside of colonization. outside of pure genocide. outside of ethnic cleansing. zionist jews’ recent tactics have been to call any mention of this blood libel which i find insane bc it is factually untrue to the definition of what blood libel is

for some odd reason my iphone won’t open this article anymore but go read on this from the new yorker!

if you ever see a bunch of white supremacists/nazis on tumblr being zionists or friends with zionists btw it’s bc the worlds largest zionist organization is made up of christian’s/catholics. just in case you want to know what side of history these people are on. fascists love being racist together <3

blog from more antizionist jewitches on christian zionism WITH sources cited

the difference between the three israels and why “am yisrael chai” is NOT synonymous to zionism or the existence of the state of israel

again with sources cited in the blog

finally i’d watch enduring roots https://vimeo.com/89376847

this is just the trailer as it is a donation based documentary but i did not pay much to watch this on my own. its a documentary put together by the international jewish antizionist fund about accounts from actual nakba survivors

how the fuck am i going to allow myself to believe a country that says it values the safety of my life. a jewish life. which by the way. in judaism we value all life. you can and should break any jewish law to save a life. so tell me then why are these people so comfortable carpet bombing children? murdering women? using HUMAN SHIELDS to get their way

anyways i will add more sources as i remember them but TLDR israels main line of propaganda and brainwashing IS “you belong here. we will keep you safe. we are the only place that can keep you safe” while actively causing so much harm and being founded on racist ideals while they allow tens of thousands of human souls to die when there are many places safe for us across the world

[blubushie]

Are there some things you dislike about fans' interpretation of the other mercs?

Yeah uh. This is long so it's under the cut. Whole TF2 fandom boutta be like 2Fort on my arse.

I hate how people make Medic "evil". He's fun and goofy and likes doing experiments and he'll betray the people paying him for the sake of his long-time coworkers who he's mates with. He's not evil, he's not manipulative, outsmarting the LITERAL DEVIL doesn't make you a bad person. There is literally nothing in canon to point to Medic being evil except MAYBE stealing a bloke's spine (coulda been dark humour for all we know) and turning a criminal into a sentient pumpkin, which is something that Engie HELPED HIM DO but no one goes around calling him evil. Medic is chaotic good or chaotic neutral, he is not evil.

The amount of people who are downright racist about Demo, or the amount of people who reduce his addiction to the butt of a joke. There's a lot of shit that I notice. They act like Demo isn't fiercely loyal—look at his relationship to his mum). They act like he's lazy because he's an alcoholic—HE HAS 3 JOBS AND WANTS MORE, HE WASN'T LAZY IN THE COMICS HE WAS DEPRESSED BECAUSE HE LOST ALL HIS MATES. On the other end of the coin, you have people insisting that Demo's alcoholism isn't as bad as it actually is, as if substance abuse is a fucking moral failing and they can't have their blorbo be a bad person by just letting him be the alcoholic he's shown to be in canon.

As an intersex man: do not get me fucking started on the amount of intersex+NB headcanons I've seen of Pyro. People need to realise that like the rest of the human population, most intersex people are cis, that gender is not equivalent to sex, and that EVERY intersex character being non-binary promotes a harmful stereotype. Actually I'll be honest—I side-eye EVERY intersex Pyro headcanon what's made by a perisex person. Most the time they give off massive virtue signal vibes and I really don't like how the second you can't clearly determine someone's gender people immediately go "ah, intersex" like we're all visually androgynous. I also don't like how the person MOST OTHERED ON THE TEAM is always given the intersex headcanon. It doesn't make me feel represented, it makes me feel like everyone already seems me as an other and that's all I'll ever be.

People who act like the pronoun police and insist Pyro's pronouns are they/them. Canonically Pyro is always and consistently referred to as he/him except when he's being dehumanised by his own team and called it. It's cool if you headcanon Pyro as using they/them, just remember it ISN'T CANON and you shouldn't be getting on people's arse about non-canon pronouns. What are you a cop?

On a similar vein, the amount of people who infantilise Pyro. Pyro was literally the CEO OF A COMPANY who was responsible for RECORD PROFITS OF THAT COMPANY. Pyro is an adult. People assume that because Pyro hallucinates or enjoys "childish" things that it means Pyro's a child. Please be fucking normal about mental illness, my god.

People who make Scout transfem for the sole purpose of shipping Scout with Pauling, worse even if they outright make it so that Scout transitioned SPECIFICALLY to hook up with Pauling. You realise that you're enforcing TERF "all transfems are predatory and transition just to get chicks/transfem lesbians are just straight men" rhetoric right? Please tell me you're aware. People who make Scout transfem for reasons beside this (ie you just like transfem Scout) and still hook her up with Pauling for fun, I love you and this post is not about you. <3

People who ignore Medic's likely bisexuality in favour of writing him as a strictly gay male. Bi erasure is fucking real lads. If you have the view that Demo was talking out his arse and didn't actually shag Medic's wife cuz he's not even married, cool ok. I'm talking about the people who insist Medic's wife was his beard.

People who act like the ship police with Pauling's sexuality when her being a lesbian was something mentioned in one tweet on Twitter by Jay, not approved by Valve, and never referenced in the source material (outside of MAYBE how she stared at Zhanna while she was fighting robots, but that facial expression could also be interpreted as impressed or "so horrified she can't look away". Especially when she outright agreed to go on a second date with Scout in Expiration Date. If you headcanon her as a lesbian, cool! Just don't enforce it on other people and give them flak for shipping her with non-women characters. This applies to people aggressively enforcing Medic's sexuality as well. What are you a cop?

How the character people trans the most is the white skinny twink, white skinny otter, or white wolf. Why not Demo? Trans people of colour exist too. I can count the trans Demo headcanons I've seen on one hand. Why not Heavy? Why not Heavy? You know fat trans people exist too right?

My family is southern and half the time people don't know what the fuck goes on down south. Tell me you've never been to a cookout without telling me you've never been to a cookout. They either write him as too northern/coasty and only enforce the "stereotype" southern aspects of him, or they write him as racist/homophobic/transphobic/etc because he's southern. Luckily the latter gets a LOT of pushback on Tumblr so I haven't seen it much, but it's more prevalent on Twitter and fanfic sites.

People conveniently ignoring how Heavy's father was killed and his family was imprisoned by the USSR so they can call him a communist. Lol what. I get that you hate capitalism but you realise there's more options than just capitalism vs communism vs socialism right? That you can hate/dislike communism without also being a capitalist? Heavy would not support communism after what the USSR did to his family in the name of communism because his father was a counter-revolutionary. Also people ignoring WHY Heavy's father was killed, and how his father having different politics got his whole family, including innocent children chucked to a GULAG IN SIBERIA where they were starved and constantly abused by the guards, and how even after their escape the government continued to hunt them with the intent of killing them. He would not be a communist. He probably sees a hammer and sickle in his fucken nightmares.

Spy being evil and an arsehole. You know his schtick is the suave gentleman right? He's cool but he also has to be cringefail. And arsehole is a far cry from a gentleman.

People making Soldier a bigot. Har har I know it's funny to joke about the bloke obsessed with America being a bigot, but do you honestly think he cares enough? He's xenophobic at worst. Everyone is assumed to be American and his best mate is a black Scottish cyclops. Half the time I'm convinced you people want Soldier to be a bigot so you can write bigoted shit and not cop shit cuz it's coming out of his mouth.

Carrying on from prev, the amount of people I've seen use the time setting as an excuse to be bigoted towards the characters. This is ESPECIALLY prevalent where it seems like every story-focussed fic of Demo has a scene where someone is being racist to him and he Heroically Sticks Up For Himself or someone else sticks up for him to show How Much They Don't Care About Being Seen With A Black Man (usually it's Soldier, sometimes it's Sniper). You realise everyone knows racism is bad, right? That that's really not necessary? It wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't in EVERY FIC but it's like the author always needs to proudly claim themselves Not Racist while writing REALLY RACIST SHIT directed at the ONE CONFIRMABLE MAN OF COLOUR on the team just so they can yell "RACISM BAD but here's me jumping at the opportunity to call a man of colour a racial slur".

Well, reckon that about covers her...

[prettygirlstothefloor]

a messy review of TTPD

okay i need to preface this that i have the credentials to be able to speak my mind on her. i've been a fan since 2006. i've been a fan since i was 11 so don't get your panties in a bunch.

i think this album is messy. the production is the only thing i can really praise about it. the lead up to it and now the full release has just been so unbelievably messy. i'm going to make a continue reading for the people who still have yet to listen where i won't spoil it for you. PS. i do get mean in this. so if you're not wanting to hear critiques and criticism and taking that in, please scroll.

EDIT: this was pre-anthology release. so this is just based on the original 16 song release.

SPOILERS AHEAD

i am fully aware she is allowed to go through the grieving process of her breakup with joe. i respect that whole heartedly. i completely understand having someone in your life for such a big chunk and for them to be gone and feeling lost and alone and angry. what i don't like at all is essentially telling us in this album that she couldn't handle joe having severe depression. obviously i don't know everything that went down but it seems as though he didn't want to get married until he felt mentally better. and as someone who is also in the same boat as him, i also wouldn't want to fully commit to marriage until i felt like i could give them 100%. and if that's his biggest crime, being too depressed, then that's a her problem. being depressed is not all "haha relatable".

now onto... that man... i did not expect 90% of this album to be about him. i've only hated two people in my life. one being a family member of mine. the other, him (i will not be saying his name because he does not deserve it). the way she spent so much of this album talking about how she will defend him with her life. girl i am begging you to get up off the ground. it felt like a backstab from her in "but daddy, i love him" where she's basically saying fuck everyone for ruining a relationship i wanted. the reason no one wanted her with him is because he's a racist, misogynistic, homophobic asshole. i am aware he supports queer rights but it seems like he only cares about queer rights and the safety of queer people when it involves white queer people (ie. what happened in dubai and malaysia). i'm almost confident she cheated on joe with him while her and joe were still together. i'm sorry to taylor that i care about BIPOC and queer people's rights than making a racist white man happy.

joe truly got the short end of the stick here. he has been treated so horribly this past year by swifties who made up rumors about him just to make taylor seem like the good guy and the only thing this album told me was she was the villain in all of this. i hope joe has a good support system around him and i hope he's able to get any mental health help he needs. i do also think that taylor desperately needs a therapist as well. she is very adament about not having one and just using her mom and her friends but she needs an outside source to really listen and give her advice that isn't "yes man"-ing her all day long.

anyways, like i said at the beginning of this post, i enjoyed the production. my favorite songs were fortnight and who's afraid of little old me. it's gonna take time for me to enjoy this album outside of its messiness. i did enjoy midnights btw. so it's definitely not the sound i don't like it's just everything surrounding it.

70/100