#Or maybe is it how anti-covid he is

[esperderek]

New RPG.net owner liked tweets from RFK Jr, Tucker Carlson, and more...

Just left RPG.net, that venerable old tabletop rpg forum, a forum that I've been a part of for 20+ years.

Recently (in March), it was bought by RPGMatch, a startup aiming to do matchmaking for TTRPGs. In the past couple of days, despite their many reassurances, I got it into my head to look up the new owner Joaquin Lippincott, and lucky for me he has a Twitter! (Or X, now, I guess.)

Yeah...the first warning bell is that his description calls him a 'Machine learning advocate', and his feed is full of generative AI shit. Oh, sure, he'll throw the fig leaf of 'AI shouldn't take creative jobs.' here and there, but all-in-all he is a full-throated supporter of genAI. Which means that RPGnet's multiple assurances that they will never scrape for AI...suspect at best.

Especially, when you check out his main company, https://www.metaltoad.com/, and find that his company, amongst other services, is all about advising corporations on how to make the best use of generative AI, LLMs, and machine learning. They're not the ones making them, but they sure are are helping corps decide what jobs to cut in favor of genAI. Sorry, they "Solve Business Problems."

This, alone, while leaving a massive bad taste in my mouth, wouldn't be enough, and apart from his clear love of genAI his feed is mostly business stuff and his love of RPGs. Barely talks politics or anything similar.

But then, I decided to check his Likes, the true bane of many a people who have tried to portray themselves as progressive, or at least neutral.

And wow. In lieu of links that can be taken down, I have made screenshots. If you want to check it yourself, just find his Twitter feed, this isn't hidden information. (Yet.)

Here's him liking a conspiracy theory that the War on Ukraine is actually NATO's fault, and it's all a plan by the US to grift and disable Russia!

Here's him liking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praising Tucker Carlson interviewing Vladimir Putin!

Here's him liking a right wing influencer's tweet advancing a conspiracy theory about Hunter Biden!

Former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy talking about how he wants to tear down the Department of Education and the FDA (plus some COVID vaccine conspiracy theory thrown in)

Sure did like this Tucker Carlson video on Robert Kennedy Jr... (Gee, I wonder who this guy is voting for in October.)

Agreeing about a right-wing grifter's conspiracy theories... (that guy's Twitter account is full of awful, awful transphobia, always fun.)

Him liking a tweet about someone using their own fathers death to advance an anti-vaxx agenda! What the fuck! (This guy was pushing anti-vax before his father's death, I checked, if you're wondering.)

So, yes, to sum it up, RPG.net, that prides itself as an inclusive place, protective it's users who are part of vulnerable groups, and extremely supportive of creators, sold out to a techbro (probably)libertarian whose day job is helping companies make use of generative AI and likes tweets that advance conspiracy theories about the Ukraine war, Hunter Biden, vaccines, and others. Big fan of RFKjr, Carlson, and Putin, on the other hand.

And, like, shame on RPG.net, Christopher Allen for selling to this guy, and the various admins and mods who spent ages reassuring everything will be okay (including downplaying Lippincott's involvement in genAI). Like, was no research into this guy done at all? Or did y'all not care?

So I'm gone, and I'm betting while maybe not today or tomorrow, things are going to change for that website, and not for the best for anyone.

[conkreetmonkey]

So Jack Marston was 4 in 1899. He was 19 in 1914. This has some truly crazy implications about the time periods Jack could reasonably live to see. Despite the low likelihood of it given his lifestyle, let's assume he lives to die of old age.

(it's a long one under the cut)

Jack Marston would be 25 in 1920, meaning he would be in the prime of his life during the roaring twenties. He would be 34 on Black Tuesday in 1929, and live through the Great Depression, coming out the other side at 46 years old.

He would live through both world wars, so if we're assuming he's somehow cleaned up his name and is no longer n outlaw, perhaps existing under another identity, he would be drafted into at least one world war, as he would live through both WWI and WWII. Let's assume he either dodges the draft or survives the battlefield; likely the former, as he'd still hate the federal government with a burning passion, and is no stranger to evading their grasp.

When WWII ended in 1945, Jack would have been about 50. He'd have seen both gunslingers and nukes in his lifetime. He'd have watched horses be replaced by cars, and airplanes become a mainstream technology.

Jack Marston would be 55-65 in the 1950s. He'd witness the development and popularization of plastic, TVs pop up in every home, and hyperconsumerism become the norm as wrinkles set in and his hair started falling out. At this point, especially for the time, he'd truly be getting old. Maybe he'd have kids, or even grandkids by thus point. Would he be happy, having experienced the best and worst of America? He was probably too old to serve in Vietnam; there's no way he wouldn't have some sort of disability by this point.

Jack Marston would be 75 in 1970. At this point, death of old age becomes exponentially more likely with every passing year, but let's be hyper-optimistic just to push this to its limits. Jack would witness hippies. Would he like or dislike them, these men who despise the government-mandated bloodshed he'd lived through, yet resisted through bright colours, bongoes and weed?

Old Man Marston, if still kicking, would be 85 in 1980. Probably going senile by this point, but if still mentally sharp and with nimble enough fingers, Jack could have played Donkey Kong at 86. He could have set foot in an arcade, assuming he can still walk.

Now, as egregiously unlikely as it is, let's assume Jack lives to 100. An obscenely old age, especially given all the things he's lived through. The stress, the bullets, the cigarette smoke and lead paint... let's assume his body remains functional despite it all, some defiant force deep in his soul refusing to let him die.

If he lived to 100, Jack would have died in 1995.

Think about how insane that would be. A man raised by the last remnants of the wild west, fading out as the internet begins. He'd have seen the moon landing, and eaten at McDonald's.

Six more years, and he would have witnessed 9/11.

Jack's great grandchildren, assuming he and every child afterwards reproduced at age 30, would have been about 10 in '95. They'd have been millennials. They'd be 35 during the beginning of the Covid lockdowns. They'd be alive today, and remember their great grandfather. Perhaps they inherited a few hats and antique guns. Perhaps they now live in sprawling urban environments like Saint Denis or Blackwater, watching electronic billboards and anti-homeless architecture go up, rent go up 20% per year, and a sandwich go from $5 to $15. Maybe they'd watch Jack's now-senile firstborn lose money that used to, long ago, belong to the Van Der Linde Gang, falling for a Nigerian prince or Google gift card scam.

Or maybe Jack Marston's kid(s) died to Covid. It's entirely possible, nay plausible given the timeline as it exists. Jack was one generation away from possibly living to read Homestuck or watch Space Jam in the old folks home.

What do you think Arthur, John and Jack would think if there was an afterlife, looking down upon what America had become in 12 short decades? Would they relate to John's great-great-grandchildren, to living in a time and place that doesn't want you? To the impossibility of making an honest living, of escaping America's newest model of the Orphan Crushing Machine? Would they see Dutch echoed in Trump, Cornwall in Bezos or Musk? An empire they watched grow up begin to slow down from age, never ceasing in its quest to ruin as many lives as possible?

How would they feel, watching Jack's 9 year old great-great-grandchild, still bearing the Marston name, do active shooter drills in her classroom as the air turned to poison and the summer to a kiln? As men like Dutch prod her along into a life of miserable servitude to a gang of thieves, elevated to untouchable American royalty with Pinkertons and the law as their knights?

Personally, I think they'd be quite upset.

[cosmossystem]

ok fuck it. system tinder post. yes this is cringe. no i don't care i do what i want forever. NOT a joke post at all (it is a little silly though.) our protectors only let me get away with this because they think it's funny. mostly i just think it's funny because it makes me feel like i'm trying to convince you to adopt us, which is accurate. anyway enjoy my sales pitch

also sorry if this clogs the tags (feel free to block us. there will be no hard feelings) -cass

System Tinder Post

System (20) seeking Partner System(s) (18+)

Are YOU& over 18 and seeking a NEW QPR/PARTNER SYSTEM?? Look no further than US, THE COSMOS. Interested? Have more questions? Want a follow-up interview? Just want to say hi? That's all great! Send an ask, DM, or reply to this post.

We are: American, white, collectively nonbinary and transmasculine, disabled, autistic, OCD, polyamorous, objectum (but not POSIC), kinky, therians General interests: Minecraft & Hermitcraft, Baldur's Gate 3, art, writing, space and astronomy, disability activism, cartoons, sleeping, some bugs, clowns, original characters Ask privately for: fandoms, other interests, any more specific details (trying not to dox us too much here bc this is a sideblog)

What we NEED in a partner system: covid-conscious, anti-zionist, anti-transmedicalism, endo-friendly What we would PREFER in a partner system: having literally anything in common with us in terms of likes/identity What we are interested in: whatever the vibes are (platonic/romantic/sexual/whatever)

Love language: does not speak unless spoken to, but when spoken to, will NOT shut up ever. at first, needs constant reassurance we are not bothering you. our host gets b&w thinking VERY easily so you might need to be persistant in checking on us, however we will do the same for you. would love to get to know you and eventually maybe video call. will send you cool pictures and stuff that reminds us of you.

Trivia:

collectively a gemini

ate our twin in the womb

sleep with dozens of plushies on the bed (all of them are named)

have known about our plurality for over 8 years

currently have about 40-ish members but we are not counting

have had at least one in-system wedding

have had the same special interests for several years now

our regular pizza order is a cheese pizza plus pineapples, onions, and green bell peppers

we cover everything we own in stickers

our christmas tradition consists of making hot cocoa and watching the same movies every year

we are REALLY good at making kandi but we don't normally wear it

red knows how to play a kalimba/thumb piano and a ukulele (but he hates to admit it because he had a cringy soft-boy phase a few years ago)

jam can juggle!

crush makes his own plushies

several of us can code HTML/CSS

caspar and red can often be found watching bluey together when cass is regressed

avid players of Pokemon Go (have caught 2 shinies!)

we each have a favorite pokemon!!! ask what they are

we collect a lot of stuff (pins/buttons, keychains, plushies, mugs, hats, stickers)

ok if you read this far i feel like you are at least obliged to say hi in the notes

[tittyinfinity]

i can't shut up i'm sorry I'm ranting about Biden again

I'm starting to think Trump's presidency really wasn't any worse than what we have going on now, he was just targeting different people.

Bear with me.

The thing is, Biden has been the president for most of the pandemic and he hasn't been doing anything to stop the spread of it, so when people say "but Trump would kill US here!!" I wanna mention that Biden is already killing people of all parts of the political spectrum with his passiveness on covid

Biden is smarter than Trump. He's been in politics longer. He has had decades of learning how to maneuver politics. He has agreed with a lot of bad policies, many more than Trump even had the ability to do w his only 4 years of presidency. Trump is more interested in his image than anything else. Which is also dangerous! But it's much easier to convince people that Trump, a guy who is loud about his prejudices and caused a lot of damage because of that, is worse than a guy who pretends to agree with you on issues and then commits literal genocide.

Like I said, it just changes who is targeted instead. But is that really the case? We're already being targeted in different ways. A few good things have passed under Biden! But we also lost more bodily autonomy rights as far as abortion and trans rights go (not everywhere, but many states have become dangerous to live in). "That's not completely his fault" sure! Well then if the president doesn't have the power to change things truly for the better themselves, then worrying about who the president will be doesn't really matter. Also, presidents in the US have the ability to make executive orders.

And maybe he has spoken up on these things more and I just haven't heard about them - but Biden does not take the time to speak out about the anti-abortion, anti-trans, or healthcare related issues, except for the occasional quip here and there before he goes right back to not giving a shit. And I'm only using those as an example because a lot of "vote blue no matter who" people apparently only care about what happens to people here instead of in other countries.

And it's just really shitty to say "well what about the people who COULD die under a republican presidency instead of the real people dying from Biden's incitement of genocide right now!"

Trump incited a LOT of hatred in our country, yes. It pushed people to be more loud and open about their prejudices. But the deaths caused by hate crimes and COVID here in America were not on near of a large and deadly scale as what Biden is doing right now. We didn't watch our entire cities get destroyed and have our entire families wiped out.

So it seems, again, like the "vote blue no matter who" crowd only cares about politics when it comes to how THEY will (or MIGHT) be affected.

Am I saying vote for Trump or DeSantis? Fuck no. I'm saying prevent the next election from happening and burn this imperialistic genocidal government to the ground. The US has caused enough death, well into the millions, ever since it was created, and hasn't ever stopped committing genocide. But it only seems to matter when it (COULD) happen to white Americans.

Mexican people are still being put in cages and having their children stolen, too.

Indigenous people are still being murdered.

Disabled people are still dying from lack of accessible healthcare.

And the prices of everything have SKYROCKETED since Biden became president.

People are already suffering under a democratic president. You just won't care until it happens to you.

[mariacallous]

On a visit to Barnes & Noble in middle school, I asked my mom to buy me “The Book of Jewish Values,” by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. We weren’t Jewish — though my paternal grandfather was — nor religious in any way. But I was fascinated by the book’s instructions on applying moral principles in day-to-day situations, from citing your sources to quitting smoking. As I got older, I would flip past the esoteric Ethicist pages in the Sunday New York Times and go straight to the etiquette column, where I could learn about the real nuts and bolts of ethical daily living. I loved the logical process involved in deducing the best next step from a broader moral rule.

In college, I charged into adulthood believing the rest of the world was engaged in the same ethical study as I was, taking pleasure in trying to match their actions to their principles. “Of course the basketball team should suspend our best player while he’s under police investigation,” I’d say confidently. “Sports are about character, not winning at all costs!” My Midwestern classmates were not persuaded, to say the least. I began to feel like an alien who had learned about life from books.

By the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and many people refused to change their lifestyles in the slightest, I thought I might be completely alone in my convictions. I read Holocaust memoirs, trying to learn how to behave in a world devoid of principles. Viktor Frankl’s work encouraged me to believe I always have control over one small corner of the world — my own actions — even though “decent people … always will remain a minority.” I decided to take an introduction to Judaism class and begin attending a local synagogue’s Zoom services.

At the time, my friends and I worked for employers who emailed us anti-vaccine misinformation, logged our every keystroke with productivity software because they felt sure we’d spend every work-from-home day watching Netflix and, in one case, asked employees to donate PTO to a coworker who became gravely ill after being required to work in the office during a known COVID outbreak. I strained to understand the principles behind any of these actions. (Is fear a principle? Is greed?) One day, I received a different type of email, this time from the synagogue.

Synagogue leadership wrote to inform us that they had made the difficult decision to part ways with a core team member for noncompliance with “an important synagogue policy.” Because vaccines had just become widely available, one could surmise what the policy might be. The policy, the email said, served one of the highest values of Judaism: pikuach nefesh, saving life.

The message felt like seeing another traveler in the desert. Even though it was difficult, the rabbis and the board of trustees had started from a shared moral principle, and then acted accordingly — just like in my beloved Telushkin book. Several months later, I converted to Judaism. I took the Hebrew name Gavriella to honor my personal Jewish hero whose principles transcend her situation, former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Joining a Reform congregation made me realize just how breakable my principles had been when I believed they were mine alone. For example, in college, I dated a guy who vociferously opposed any social plan that did not involve alcohol. Whenever I suggested we take the night off from drinking, he would tell me I was lame and that no one would ever be interested in the types of booze-free dates I proposed. At first, I thought maybe he was right and joined him in drinking to excess, with predictably poor results. Then, I was furious with him for being reckless and cruel to me. It was only years later, after he got sober, that I saw how my reactions hurt both him and me. I was engaging with a diseased idea that deserved neither consideration nor debate.

The position I took — that the desire to be cool is not a good reason to take risks with your health and safety — is a time-tested truism that follows the moral principle of pikuach nefesh. It was not “just like, my opinion, man,” to paraphrase a classic film by two Jewish brothers. If I had understood that my then-boyfriend was not fighting me but the fundamental principles of well-being, I might have been able to react compassionately, recognizing his words as a cry for help.

I believe some principles are universal. As the filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille said, “We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them.” Where we should continue to debate and engage one another is the application of the principles, the “wrestling with God” that defines the Jewish people, so that we can fight dogma, stagnation and injustice. Each time I attend Shabbat services, I’m among other people who have carved that moment out of their lives to focus on the big, important things: What can we do to help the sick? How can we bring more peace to our communities? When I re-enter day-to-day life, I feel stronger and more courageous. During the early pandemic, I even found the words to speak up at work about COVID misinformation.

Millennial and Gen Z women are leaving organized religion in record numbers, many citing oppression against women within some branches of religion, according to research by the American Enterprise Institute. Many religious institutions are due for a reckoning. But we also know an individualistic society rarely works. Even the most determined, self-serious 12-year-old who spends her Barnes & Noble money on rabbinical texts will falter without others who share her values. Becoming Jewish has taught me that we need wisdom traditions and we need community around them, or else we are each rowing our own small boat, susceptible to every shift of the wind.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Peter Montgomery at RWW:

Musician and Christian nationalist political activist Sean Feucht, who is affiliated with the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation, will bring his trademark mixture of worship, spiritual warfare, and hard-right politics to the National Mall on Saturday, Oct 26.  Feucht, an ardent supporter of former president Donald Trump, recently claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign was benefiting from “some serious demonic sorcery witchcraft thing.” He has previously demonstrated a willingness to spread lies about the Biden administration. In a “prayer zoom” livestream Wednesday night, Feucht said Saturday’s gathering will be a chance to “do damage to the kingdom of darkness. “I feel like this is a strategic assignment,” he said. “I feel like God is sending us on assignment…This is a governmental assignment…I feel like God is sending us in as the Navy Seals of intercessors…There comes an hour in battle when you need the Navy Seal intercessors.”  One of Feucht’s colleagues called the event an opportunity for the “ekklesia”—a term dominionists use to signify the church as a governing body on Earth—to “declare the majesty and the dominion of your kingdom over the governments of men.” Feucht said the weekend would kick off with a few hundred people gathering inside the U.S. Capitol complex on Friday morning, followed by a “Jesus March” from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House at noon on Saturday and the main event at 4 p.m. “This will be the last major faith worship event on the National Mall just days before the election and we are so excited to see how God is going to use it to turn the tide in America,” Feucht told Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Erick Stakelbeck. Feucht’s event comes just two weeks after dominionist New Apostolic Reformation leaders gathered thousands of people on the National Mall for a political and spiritual warfare rally that culminated with an “apostolic decree” that Trump would win this year’s election. Feucht considers anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ activist Lou Engle, the organizer of the Oct. 12 rally, his spiritual mentor. 

Feucht is a missionary-musician associated with the controversial and influential megachurch Bethel in northern California. In 2020, his run for Congress ended with a defeat in the primary election in spite of endorsements from Charlie Kirk, Christian nationalist political operative David Lane, and NAR leaders Ché Ahn and Cindy Jacobs. But when COVID-19 struck, Feucht saw an opportunity to make a name for himself by leading public events in defiance of public health restrictions, dubbing them “Let Us Worship.” In 2020, Feucht was part of the pro-Trump boosterism engaged in by many Christian nationalist and dominionist religious-right leaders. When Trump was defeated, Feucht claimed that the incoming Biden administration was “carrying some of the most anti-Christ agenda and philosophy that maybe we have seen in the history of America” and he warned, “There is a mob spirit that wants us to bow down to the gods of secular liberalism … and if we don’t bow, we’re gonna be bullied, harassed, and threatened. We’re going to be censored. We’re going to banished from speaking in the public square.”

Far-right Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht will bring his Let Us Worship rally to DC’s National Mall this Saturday.

[kael-writ]

saw a leftist post about how we shouldnt try too hard to be safe at protests and like Im tired Im sure I misread stuff but if I did, most people probably would.... and they talked about covid precautions in a weird way and used a term "safetyism" and my guy, look, ... safety is the point. Like sure if you as an able bodied white 20 year old wanna get beat up by a cop resisting arrest to make a point that's fine. Even If you wanna immolate yourself for a cause a lot of people wont judge you and will respect your choice. It can be heroic to take on risks in protest

But... come the fuck on, honestly. Safety is ultimately the point. We're here to make people safe. I look around these protests and there are disabled people in wheelchairs, children, elderly people, vulnerable comrades. Someone in the comments said maybe people in wheelchairs shouldn't be there like, ....no? It's their fight too. WTF do you think happens to Palestinians who lose limbs in a bombing? They use wheelchairs. You're saying they don't have a place...? No, they do. People in wheelchairs are at every protest, disability protests are hardcore actually, they're not asking your permission just your respect.

Another guy got so mad about comments advocating masks that he said he was gonna go to he march and cough on people like? ...We're comrades?

If you wanna specifically plan a highly risky action you do it with a small trusted group. You don't just go to a march someone else organized and wild out and then get mad that not everyone had the same ideas as you when you didnt co-ordinate and communicate. If the cops try to arrest you the crowd will try to support you but if they don't know you or what happened the risk they're willing to take is realistically limited regardless of what you think it should be.

A lot of people will support righteous rioting to a generous extent but generally at protests, not really at Palestine protests but at some others like the anti-war ones or Occupy, there are one or two people there just to be a jerk, not for a good cause, just to take advantage of the crowd to be destructive or whatever. Like someone just turning over a planter in front of an indie restaurant, like, ok? WTF did the damn plants do to you? A bunch of us replanted it. To quote Dead Kennedys, "trash a bank if you got real balls." That's really rare but it can happen and as much as we all wanna love and trust everyone, we're still city folk and you're still strangers. I don't trust people I haven't known for at least two years lol. Not to mention shit like the FBI pretending to be activists to entrap people.

It's not morally or ethically wrong to like, be as safe as possible within these inherently risky actions and consider carefully what additional risks to take or not.

If we're not taking care of the most vulnerable people in our number and including them what the fuck is the point? Yall wanna evoke women and children as victims but not include the most vulnerable victims in marching for their own rights?

We're not here to try to be cool, we're here to end a genocide, and that's gonna take a lot of work from a lot of people in a lot of ways, and some of those people and some of those ways have to be kept relatively safe.

[9w1ft]

Hi! I'm a longtime kaylor lurker, but I saw you and your anons were trying to think through the reason for this Travis Kelce push and I thought I'd share some perspective as an American who's not exactly a football fan per se, but is from an area of the country where football is very popular so I'm kind of an ambient fan by default. I'm very sorry this got a little long, but I do think there are some really interesting dynamics at play here, but the tldr; is - broad appeal for the American premiere and politics.

There are some optics about Travis Kelce that are I think getting lost in the NFL-to-Swiftie translation that may be important. He's a famous football player, yes, but NFL fans skew heavily towards older men in non-urban areas, which also means NFL fans skew conservative. Travis Kelce promoted Bud Light when transphobes in America were boycotting the brand, and is also partnering with Pfizer for a public health campaign to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, which is very controversial for American conservatives. He's also known as a very stylish man (which is weird to say but is pretty uncommon among American athletes, especially white ones, and he's well-known for it) and before Taylor, all of his known/rumored exes have been Black or mixed (I could write an essay on the racial dynamics alone of this weekend, but... suffice it to say it's there and messy). I'd also heard rumors that he was closeted before he got together with Taylor, but I never really looked into them that deeply so I don't know how true they are, or whether they arose just because he dresses well and doesn't usually date white women (sad but true that for a portion of Americans, that would be enough to make them doubt his masculinity and therefore heterosexuality). Which kind of gets to my point - before this, a lot of the more conservative wing of NFL fans saw Travis Kelce as controversial, "beta", not sufficiently manly, despite the fact he is a champion football player. I know all of this sounds a little insane, please remember that these are the people electing Donald Trump and going after drag shows and banning books with LGBTQ+ people in them.

So, with that slightly more nuanced image of Travis Kelce, I think that makes the clearest takeaway from this weekend, at least for me, how extremely traditional all-American it was. Football player, blonde girl cheering in the stands with his mom, driving off in his convertible after the game, them making a point to correct the initial reporting that she had paid for people's meals so that he's the one renting out the restaurant for her. To be clear, this isn't really how Travis Kelce is normally seen, and already I've seen some hit tweets with people dunking on conservatives criticizing Kelce for being insufficiently manly by responding something along the lines of "uh, he won the Super Bowl and bagged the world's most famous pop star, I think he's doing okay" - so, reading between the lines, he's performed (specifically) white masculinity very successfully. And for Taylor, too, I think we've already seen a lot of people saying how she's finally with a "real man" - he's very tall, he's very athletic, he's American, I think a lot of the joking anti-Joe "he's got a real job" comments fall into this bucket as well. She is performing white American womanhood in a very specific way, a large part of which is that she's being framed as not the 'dominant' partner in the relationship in the way she was in her relationship with Joe (by virtue of their differences in wealth and success).

So I think this is re-orienting both of their images into a new, very traditional, Americana-inspired direction. I don't think this is a market Taylor has really gone after maybe since she moved into pop in the first place, but especially not in recent years, when she swung very hard into a much more urban liberal niche (basing herself more out of NYC and London than Nashville, associating herself musically and socially with people like the Haim sisters, Phoebe Bridgers, MUNA).

I don't think we can know exactly why she's leaning this direction yet, but if I had to guess it's more about the American documentary premiere. In Hollywood, typically for the biggest box office impact you want a "four-quadrant movie" - one that appeals to the four biggest demographic quadrants (male/female and under 25/over 25). Taylor Swift's fanbase skews female and young, with a solid presence over 25 as well, and like I said earlier, the NFL's fanbase skews male and over 25. I don't think showing up to a football game will make a bunch of NFL fans suddenly want to see her documentary on opening night, but it may make them more inclined to go see it with their girlfriends, wives, or daughters a few days later, instead of staying at home, and that would have a very big box office impact.

I also think she *might* be looking at the political optics, and wanting to not only move on from MH but also put herself in a kind of solidly centrist-liberal place (she likes good ol' American football but also the vaccine! she votes Dem but she's not one of those New York liberal elites, she eats chicken tenders with seemingly ranch! - truly seems like this is a couple tailor-made (or maybe Taylor-made ;) ) to appeal to swing voters), which I think is very much where she tried to position herself with Miss Americana as well and which seems relevant given her voter registration push recently and as we move into an election year. I'll be very interested to see if she does anything further politically, or says anything about politics in her documentary again. Between her voter registration effort and his Pfizer partnership and the timing of both, politics is actually the angle I'd bet on driving this.

hi! thank you for sharing these thoughts, it provides more context for everything! i do think it shapes her persona in the public eye, and it’s interesting to think how that might benefit her in ways other than a profit motivation

[kaija-rayne-author]

Review 2 in series for Dragon Age Veilguard

Spoilers for Veilguard

First part of review series is below.

I'm not an asshole disclaimer (same as the first one, if you read that, you can just skip down to the cut.)

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.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. 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.

9 hours in, 7 hours playtime.

Negative review

While I'm incredibly grateful that I can play this game, because I really hope the story actually starts soon, (yes, I said it, the pacing on this is terrible, and I'm both an editor and a writer, I have a clue). I hate to say... I am soooo glad I didn't buy it. Or I'd be demanding a refund. I didn’t actually look at the price tag, but it must’ve been around $80 Canadian. Given our cost of living crisis, that's obscene but whatever. Games are expensive.

It's just not worth that much in its current state. Sure. Games on release often have bugs. I kinda hate spending money to be an unpaid beta tester. BG3 had nowhere near as many.

My computer comes down right around the middle of the minimum and recommended specs. DA4 doesn't even make it get hot like BG3 makes it. So I'm really thinking glitchy game vs computer issues. Considering I'm not the only one it's happening to... welp. (I looked the glitch up, it's pretty common.)

5 out of 10 loads, my character glitches back to the stock elf body. And if I continue playing, it corrupts my saves and they won't load. It has also happened mid-battle, too. So I have to figure out which save to go back to before the glitch bit. Which, without pics in the save files is fun /s.

'Balanced' play isn’t. I play on tactician/hard in most games. I'm on balanced, and keep fucking dying. TBH I'm not extremely awesome with the controls and moves yet, but I'm not bad either. I honestly just think the bad guys are too overpowered (way too fast, hit too hard, and it takes too long to break their armour) for beginning levels. And yes, I have my Rook in the best armour I currently have. Maybe if I could carry more than 3 potions, it wouldn't matter as much, but IDEK man.

And you know what isn't actually any fun in games? Dying a lot. Also? Having to drop my difficulty level for regular bad guys less than ten hours into the game. It's still teaching me moves ffs, so is sorta the tutorial. I'm not a 'get gud' type. I think that's ridiculous. Gaming is supposed to be fun. If it makes it more fun to drop the level for a boss fight or whatever, more power to you. But I usually don't have to until end-game material. If I have to at all. It's honestly pretty rare. Load time is ridiculous, so every time an over-powered not-a-fucking-darkspawn slams my rogue (which I swear shouldn't be possible, I know how to fight with rogues, they're my first and favourite class), I get creamed because I'm bloody stuck in a place I shouldn't get stuck in.

I know they had testing on this. Wasn't that why the date was pushed back? My memory isn't great since COVID but I think I might’ve seen that somewhere.

Solavellans will likely be disappointed in the first seven hours. You see Solas twice. He may as well not even be in the game.

And I really hate to say this, but I'm just bored. I wasn’t itching to play it like I usually am with good games. (If a game catches me up, it's about the only thing I want to do.) I still loaded it up tonight, didn’t have anything better to do. (Because I'd probably have done that instead.) I'm mostly playing so I know what happens in the story myself. And I was hoping we'd get some answers to all this lore that lives in my head, rent free. So, whatever, I'm still hoping it will catch me up. I'll keep playing in hopes we actually get something resembling a story at some point soon.

And the number of editorial errors is ridiculous. Both developmental and copy.

'Cause bodies can't decompose in the Anderfels? Because nothing external lives there? Granted, I have specialized knowledge there (former forensic anthropologist) but, that isn't remotely how decomp works.

Does your 3 week old raw hamburger not rot because it was in a cold, dark place without any external decomposers? (My 17 year old knew the correct answer to that, so did my 12 year old.)

The primary forms of humanoid/mammalian decomposition come from inside us. Bugs don't even start showing up for a bit. Why do you think bodies bloat? Our gut bacteria going wild. Why do you think bodies are routinely embalmed? No bugs (usually) in a funeral home or morgue either.

And y'know? I actually outright told Epler on Twitter (before it went to complete hell) that he needed a better editor or 4 after playing DAI. And DAV already has more editorial issues than I noticed in the whole first half of DAI. Way to prove my point.

I'm an exacting editor. I'm pretty good at it. And I don't expect perfection in anything. Perfectionism is a trauma response, after all. But so many errors so soon? Really?

I'm not even getting into the story issues. Because I'm still hoping we actually, y'know, get to a story? And if I'm really lucky? That story will cover some of the glaring errors.

But so far? I'm not impressed. I've never, since I started playing DA games, been fucking bored.

Next one is here:

[verdemoun]

I'm legitimately thinking about the gang witnessing big events. Bessie was probably there when USSR collapsed. The gang and 9/11. Big advances in queer rights in general (I can definitely see Bill telling someone to turn up the radio after he hears a snippet). Covid, fucking covid. And that's just a few. That must've been wild. I can see some of the newcomers getting overwhelmed - the world has never seemed like this in their first life. There was never so much happening.

(i can also see Lenny fucking thriving; boy loves studying. I can DEFINITELY see him asking Bessie about events she witnessed before anyone arrived.)

I'M SO SORRY THIS WAS EATEN BY DRAFTS PLEASE ENJOY

Side shuffling around the gang living through 9/11 as a non-American who was alive but too busy shoving crayons up my nose to fully understand the devastation from 9/11 from a global perspective I am not going to attempt that But a) it definitely contributed to Arthur's fear of flying b) it was the first time the gang were seriously agitated by Bessie's no guns in the house rule because all the safety they had worked towards finding in modern era was ripped away from them and c) they would have been very bothered by the sheer amount of racism it inspired they did not go through 1899 bigotry just to watch it be born again.

QUEER RIGHTS MY PASSION

The gang were all over that shit they may still have a bit of that 1899 assumes pronouns and don't fully understand some LGBTQIA+ identities but most of them needed a hobby and keeping up to date with how queer rights were being adapted into civil rights was a whole gang affair.

Arthur hot for voting rights Morgan out there accidentally intimidating people to vote for parties that openly supported pro-lgbtqia+ agendas.

The number one thing Isaac never got in trouble from the gang for protesting no matter how much actual legal trouble he got into. He was wearing skirts and dresses to school to protest gendered uniforms, he was punching protestors in the face (maybe a lil trouble for that one but not nearly as much as he probably should have been), vandalizing homophobic signs and billboards he was out fighting.

Arthur picking him up from holding after teen Isaac got caught vandalizing a homophobic billboard and instead of a lecture Isaac gets McDonalds on the way home.

Bill didn't say outright it was to celebrate gay marriage finally being legalized but the day it was confirmed gay marriage was going nation-wide he invited everyone over for the biggest boozy cook-out ever and internalized homophobia be damned my boy can work a grill.

Also poor Bessie having to be the one to explain to the 1899 gang when they timewarped in 1999 that same-sex intercourse was still technically a crime and if anything the laws around it had gotten more explicitly anti-gay since 1899 when every single one of them was a little slice of fruit cake - the absolute riot she had to deal with in her living room.

COVID

Arthur was a nervous wreck. He died of the last plague and is absolutely convinced covid-19 would be his second demise. Comes off as really aggressive about people wearing masks and sanitizing their hands but in private Charles is fully aware he is absolutely terrified. Like paling as the death toll rises Charles having to convince him to turn off the news before he has a meltdown.

Arthur was living lockdown style even before lockdown was announced would not leave the house, sprayed any groceries left at the door with disinfectant, insisted Charles get changed out of outside-contaminated clothes before he walked into the house ect.

Charles had to be a very patient, loving supportive husband. Many bird houses and loafs of bread were made.

The gang very nearly shackled Hosea to the couch because his attitude was 'bah how many epidemics have i survived already' despite being an elderly smoker with pre-existing lung issues.

On his way home the day lockdown was announced Lenny bought as much gym equipment as he could fit in his car and while Sean absolutely went insane not being able to go out and do things he did accidentally get shredded because he would spend hours in the temporary home gym trying to burn energy.

Jack immediately dipped. Grabbed a suitcase and moved into Isaac's because being trapped at home with John, Uncle, Abigail and Addie would have resulted in someone being sent to hospital for grievous bodily injuries.

Kieran thrived. Objectively the peak of his neurodivergent and mental health. No cars? Reduced people in stores? 3ft apart? It was the first time he could leave the house without noise-cancelling headphones (still took them but wore them around his neck in bliss upon realizing how quiet it was). Jumped at the chance to go to the store or drop off things because he loved leaving the house when the world was so much more quiet.

Also little people-watcher knew exactly what things to drop off to just make someone's day a little less bad. Favorite snacks, fidgets, movies they'd love, craft kits. A lot of the gang were really grateful for how well Kieran actually knew them and looked forward to the random texts of presents left at the door-step.

Sulked when restrictions were taken away he was glad the pandemic was considered over but also having to retreat to those supports because outside was too overwhelming again. (i'm projecting)

Micah got covid twice during peak pandemic, was almost hospitalized the first time, and still anti-vac.

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina! First of all I'm really glad that we have people like you, Sabine and just so many other Larrie blogs ( btw autocorrect kept correcting Larrie to married 🤣) who are the voice of reason in this fandom considering just how insane it gets on almost a daily basis ( I love it though 😝) and I love you guys for being here. I was an anti earlier but I realised that Larries are so fucking sensible and the proofs make so much sense. So it's basically the stupidity and illogical reasoning of antis that turned me into a Larrie.

Anyway I got diverted but I was looking at this picture of David Dawson (https://www.tumblr.com/srldesigns6277/761361440984678400/stylesnews-harry-and-david-at-the-my-policeman?source=share) and I realised just how much he looks like Louis. The delicate built, his height, cheekbones and just generally appearance wise his physical traits kind of remind of Louis. Do you think it could be intentional? Like because of what people were saying about Louis stepping in for some scenes during COVID or just generally because how it's not a secret within the industry? Or do you think it's just a coincidence. I have not read the book. Does it have to do something with the way both the characters are described in the book? That's again such a coincidence considering it matches H&L.

Also, I just want to add that I'm from India and I'm sooooo excited that Louis is going to be performing in India for the first time at Lollapalooza. It's such a huge deal and I really hope he gets recognized more because India is a huge market and it will benefit his career so much. But otherwise also it is emotionally so overwhelming for Indian Louies because he kept his promise and we've waited for a very very long time 🥹

God, Harry looked so good at the premiere. But, yes, David's very similar to Louis in terms of build and delicate features. I really doubt the director cast him because he was similar to Louis. I remember him saying that he'd worked with David before, so I think it would have had more to do with him being right for the role. And I'm sure they did some sort of chemistry read between him and Harry. Maybe that worked well for Harry because he is similar to Louis, but I don't know.

I truly don't think Louis stepped in for any scenes. That theory makes absolutely zero sense. As far as him being like the character in the book, I can't remember his description now, but it did need to be someone older who had an air of sophistication to him. So, in that way, he was perfect. But Tom in the book was blonde and beefy, so... I think the director just went for who was right for the role.

And I'm super excited for you guys in India. I hope you have so much fun.

[dc-polls]

"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament Entry #23

Wally Mobius Manhattan West

[ID: Cropped comic panel of Wally West as the Flash but in a blue suit sitting on the Mobius Chair. He has one hand to his head, and the other conjures an image of a house. /END ID]

What Happened?

Alright. So. The Mobius Chair. In post-Flashpoint continuity, the Mobius Chair wasn't made by Metron, but by Mobius the Anti-Monitor (which I have beef with, but will set aside for the time being). So it was already all powerful. Then Metron took it across the multiverse in his pursuit of knowledge, and the chair gained basically all the information that's ever existed in past, present and future, as well as in realities that didn't end up coming to exist. Then one day when some other shit was going down, Wonder Woman lasso'd Metron out of the chair and Batman took it for a while. Then finally Metron got it back and made a deal with Owlman on the moon to give it to him. So at this points it's changed hands a number of times, and all the while has absorbed a shitton of knowledge in the process. Next thing you know, Metron and Owlman are steaming piles of dust. The End. Or is it?

Cut to everyone's favorite, Heroes in Crisis. We're not going to get into all that because it's not the point here, but it matters because it's why Wally was in jail at the start of Flash Forward and was at a pretty low point in his life. But not to worry, the Mobius Chair told (?) Tempus Fuginaut to do some shenanigans to convince Wally to sit on it (and also save his family and this and that, you know how it is). Though reluctant, Wally does decide to sit on the chair. When this happens, he is imbued with ALL the knowledge the chair has absorbed. So like, that's a lot right? Yeah. But what we weren't shown because it was implied, is that Dr. Manhattan was the one who took the chair on the moon, so not only does Wally get everything the chair already had, but ALSO Dr Manhattans powers. Wally immediately becomes blue and starts sitting like the biggest douche in history because I guess that's just what the chair does to people lmao. And he becomes not only the fastest man alive, but also the most knowledgeable and arguably most powerful. He literally fixes the multiverse.

And then it's like "To be continued in Generation Zero" which didn't even get put out because free comic book day got all hecked up due to Covid. But it did get printed in the Flash Forward trade paperback, and idk the Batman Who Laughs shows up, and tbh that's about where I lose steam on this whole thing.

BUT the point is... even though continuity got kind of rewritten, Wally in his infinite ability to transcend reboots, has been hinted at (or maybe even outright said) that he still retains the Mobius Chair/Dr Manhattan knowledge in current times. So that's pretty darn fascinating.

--

Tournament polls will be posted after all entries are up. As always you can find all posts related to the tournament using #dc-polls-trh

[codewitch]

I have two thoughts on the election as someone who’s been watching social media outside of tumblr:

1. The whole country seems to have moved right since the pandemic. Young men want women subjugated. Young women don’t want to work, they want to be trad wives. Everyone hated being asked to inconvenience themselves slightly in order to not spread Covid. Everyone, even the left, is mad about inflation. Very few people are talking about feminism, anti-racism, or climate change anymore.

2. I don’t think campaigns matter anymore. Trump ran a dogshit campaign. He zoned out for 40 minutes on stage and no one cared. Online vibes are the campaign, and I think only the far right has realized this. Nothing Trump actually does matters because his voters have been funneled into algorithm holes/websites that paint him as a god king who will bring salvation and crush everyone you don’t like. Kamala was doing best when people inexplicably memed about her being brat. But that faded and no amount of full rallies or door knocking campaigns could make up for most people just spending most of their lives online.

To be real, I don’t know what she could have campaigned on that would have done better. Everyone hates Biden. She can’t campaign on his wins, like the inflation reduction act, because nobody cares about that even if it was a good win. She can’t campaign on student loan forgiveness because Biden tried that multiple times for it to only be blocked by republican appointed judges, and democrats can’t campaign on “we tried so hard but the republicans stopped us” because nobody ever cares about that. She could’ve campaigned more on reproductive rights. I honestly don’t know if campaigning on ending the genocide would’ve helped her. It could’ve fixed the online vibe problem if people believed her, but I genuinely fear that the vast majority of Americans don’t care about the genocide and want America to keep its presence in the Middle East because they’ll kill anybody for cheap gas.

I don’t know how to get this country back on track. I’m certain the democrats will continue to move right in response if left to their own devices. They will continue to be stuck cleaning up whatever economic crash the republicans cause. I think if the left wants to claw back ground, we need to hold a cohesive front. Be the cool guys everyone wants to be a part of. Be the ones who will help you out, because capitalism really is the enemy. Make people feel good to agree with you. Energize each other, because how can we fight them if we’re burnt out fighting each other? And run for political office, so we can start the work of replacing the centrist democrats. If we can start a good groundswell now, there’s a chance we can make an impact by next election, and maybe the democrats won’t veer so right.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Was chatting with @waitmyturtles last night and she sent me this screenshot from the Instagram story of The Eighth Sense director

And I'm reading too much in to the choice of My Strange Addiction being the song here, and like yes granted "addicted" is part of the original post but between this and the post from @starsickkk with the Insta story about how this specific poster is the only one the production team wanted to run and they said there is meaning behind it all, and because @frietesmetmaajoo asked someone to overanalyze it, I took it upon myself in my COVID-ridden state to start looking at psych meds that are pink.

And God, I feel like I am causing problems for myself at this point because I said I was going to stop speculating about this show before we maybe get some fucking answers in Episode 7 but man oh man is it fun to speculate about this show. While in real like I do not think someone asking for an extension of their prescription is automatic grounds in any case for assuming they have a drug addiction, this is fiction. They have limited time to say what they want to say and so it is much more likely they had JaeWon ask for more drugs because he is misusing them.

So anyway without further ado, a list of psych medications that can pink according to the WebMD Pill Identifier website:

Amytriptyline: anti-depressant

Buproprion: anti-depressant and smoking cessation

Citalopram: anti-depressant

Clonazepam: treats anxiety and panic disorders

Vyvanse: Treats ADHD and severe binge eating disorders

Aripriprazole: Anti-psychotic for schizophrenia and bipolar

Dextro-amphetamine: Treats ADHD and narcolepsy

What medication JaeWon has been taking has been plaguing me, I don't think that he has ADHD or narcolepsy so we can cut out Vyvanse and dextro-amphet. I don't think he's psychotic, so I'm going to cut out Aripiprazole. I think it is more likely that JaeWon has depression than anxiety so let's cut out Clonazepam as well. Leaving us with the anti-depressants amytriptyline, buproprion, and citalopram. JaeWon is still smoking so let's cut out buproprion.

Citalopram is used to treat major depressive disorder, and has been shown to be a potential treatment for PTSD when in combination with other medications.

Amytriptyline which can be used to treat major depressive disorder and which is a tricyclic antidepressant and can therefore ALSO be used to treat PTSD (x)(x)(x)

Both citalopram and amytriptyline can be addictive, and both say not to mix with alcohol, but when I think about the stark contrast in color between the Episode 6 title card and all the others, all I can think about is how pink it is.

Citalopram:

Amytriptyline:

Title Card of Episode 6:

All of this to say, putting aside the reality/delusion discussion we've been having over the last week. I think that JaeWon is misusing his medication, and I think the medication he may be prescribed is amytriptyline (I know this is a Korean show and not a Thai show but as a fun fact, amytriptyline is what Aye was prescribed in The Eclipse). Amytriptyline which has side effects such as blurred vision, weight gain, and can cause drug dependence because it is a sedative and can cause feelings of euphoria (x) and which can be fatal if you overdose.

JaeWon has said in the show that he is trying to watch his weight, and I am constantly being haunted by the blurry camerawork especially around JaeWon. I think JaeWon is misusing his medication, and I think we are seeing a suicide attempt by JaeWon before the end of this series. Or at the very least an intentional or unintentional overdose.

[fuck-customers]

I’m maybe one of 4 people that still wear a mask at work, but in my department, I’m the only one. And my manager is very anti mask, which is ironic considering he’s gotten covid a couple of times, among other illnesses, but still doesn’t want to wear a mask. Instead he takes the day off, which is fine but he just ends complaining that upper management won’t let him take more days off or let him work from home so he’s forced to come in and get other people sick. And while that’s a valid complaint, he could also just wear a mask if he’s so concerned about getting other people sick. He’s said multiple times that he think covid isn’t serious and that he felt better when he had covid and that people are just exaggerating about how serious it is. And this is coming from the same person who has had multiple relatives die from covid so I just find it so mind boggling he can say all these things when both he and his relatives are proof that covid is still an issue and should be taken seriously

Posted by admin Rodney.

[lesewut]

A short introduction of a Big Thinker- Meant to share, not to represent the wide fields he is dealing since the 1980s: Slavoj Zizek .

Platon dreamt of a state, led by philosophers and Zizek is kind of transposing this idea with the party Troika in Slovenia, together with two other philosophers.

Zizek, a critical and maybe unconventional thinker of our time, combing psychological methods of Lacan with the dialectic of Hegel (also Zizek tries to re-connect the Lacain rejection of philosophy). Making philosophy not only relevant in pop-cultural way, but also as a system of making an opinion in order to analyze the differences arousing in political conflicts, in historical-dialectic process. Zizek is opening discourse that is interlinking different disciplines, also connecting media as examples for underlining his point. Showing a critical understantment of happenings, that are often the product of ideology. Drawing attention of phenomena that is suppressed by media in order to let the audience in a dogmatic black-and-white-thinking, like an article published in the New York Times in 2014, where survivors of the Shoa are condemning 'the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine'. Likewise the paradox that whenever global finances crash, the stock markets register an upswing (quoting Yanis Varoufakis). Also that we do not live in a system of capitalism, more appropriate: In a Neo-Feudalism of Companies and that all groups that reject this system (mostly Islam influenced communites, but also indigenious folks..) are in the same breath presented in an anti-democratic behavior... Still I am shaked, when reading about the PR-work behind the justification of the Iraq-war and I recommend to read Zizek's work "The Borrowed Kettle" in which he is tracing the geo-political intentions behind this war. As Zizek emphasizes continously: The catastrophy has happened, but we haven't recognized. Prima facie it is some kind of uncomfortable to see and hear him speaking (touching his nose and snorting, speaking not fluently and his rhetoric skills…), when used to read him. So it was a mental work for me to 'comprehend' his theories without being extracted by those superficialities, as for my opinion, there was and is a link of fineness of in- and outside. But this is exactly the work and therapeutic aim behind Zizek, to accept our own discomfort, when hearing him, to look more into the deepness of some sentences, that seem to been thrown out a gut-feeling, but is more the work of critical analysis, not clinging into political directions of right and left, but showing the fatality in both. A stand point that is missed in the politcal discourse. It will stay a fragment to present all those enlightening ideas and summaries of Zizek, as he had also the time and experience to built his world-view around a historic-philosophic-psychological order. Not always I can agree on his ideas (e.g. ciritsing the criticers of Eurocentric methods as hypocratical, because in his opinion, the methods of critism are rooting in 'pure European thinking', but I have my problems by locating the human consciousness in one contitent, as we can not divide the reciproce influences from all time and areas, like the 'European heritage of Ancient Greece' would have been lost without the mental work in Toledo, also a wonderful proof in history how all religious were able to work together ; Also I miss a critical analysis of the Covid-pandemia in a Foucault-Bio-Power-way, not to negate the danger of the virus, but the methods of politcal practice.) But this is exactly what a good conversation must include, approach the 'truth' through discussions and disagreements.