#and ends the entire system third choices included

[kotaerukoto]

chat I'm asking this seriously genuinely for realsies what did Junko mean by this

[fatehbaz]

Today, as you read this [...], there are almost 2 million people locked away in one of the more than 5,000 prisons or jails that dot the American landscape. While they are behind bars, these incarcerated people can be found standing in line at their prison’s commissary waiting to buy some extra food or cleaning supplies that are often marked up to prices higher than what one would pay outside of those prison walls. [...] If they want to call a friend or family member, they need to pay for that as well. And almost everyone who works at a job while incarcerated, often for less than a dollar an hour, will find that the prison has taken a portion of their salary to pay for their cost of incarceration. [...] These policymakers and government officials also know that this captive population has no choice but to foot the bill [...] and that if they can’t be made to pay, their families can. In fact, a 2015 report led by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together, and Research Action Design found that in 63 percent of cases, family members on the outside were primarily responsible for court-related costs [...].

Rutgers sociology professor Brittany Friedman has written extensively on what is called “pay-to-stay” fees in American correctional institutions. In her 2020 article titled, “Unveiling the Necrocapitalist Dimensions of the Shadow Carceral State: On Pay-to-Stay to Recoup the Cost of Incarceration,” Friedman divides these fees into two categories: (1) room and board and (2) service-specific costs. Fees for room and board -- yes, literally for a thin mattress or even a plastic “boat” bed in a hallway, a toilet that may not flush, and scant, awful tasting food -- are typically charged at a “per diem rate for the length of incarceration.” It is not uncommon for these fees to reach $20 to $80 a day for the entire period of incarceration. The second category, what Friedman refers to as “service-specific costs,” includes fees for basic charges such as copays or other costs for seeing a doctor or nurse, programming fees, email and telephone calls, and commissary items. 

In 2014, the Brennan Center for Justice documented that at least 43 states authorize charging incarcerated people for the cost of their own imprisonment, and at least 35 states authorize charging them for some medical expenses. More recent research from the Prison Policy Institute found that 40 states and the federal prison system charge incarcerated people medical copays. 

It’s also critical to understand how little incarcerated people are paid for their labor in addition to the significant cut of their paltry hourly wages that corrections agencies take from their earnings. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of incarcerated people work behind bars. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, those who work regular jobs in prisons such as maintaining the grounds, working in the kitchen, and painting the walls of the facilities earn on average between $0.14 and $0.63 an hour. [...] Arkansas and Texas don’t pay incarcerated workers at all, while Alabama only pays incarcerated workers employed by the state’s correctional industry. [...]

For example, if someone sends an incarcerated person in Florida $20 online, they will end up paying $24.95. [...]

Dallas County charges incarcerated people a $10 medical care fee for each medical request they submit. In Texas prisons, those behind bars pay $13.55 per medical visit, despite the fact that Texas doesn’t pay incarcerated workers anything. Texas is one of a handful of states that doesn’t pay incarcerated people for their labor. 

In Kentucky’s McCracken County Jail in Paducah, it costs $0.40 a minute for a video call; this translates into $8.00 for each 20-minute video call. [...] For those who need to use email, JPay charges $2.35 for five emails for people in the Texas prison system ($0.47 an email). [...]

People in Florida prisons pay $1.70 for a packet of four extra-strength Tylenol and $4.02 for four tampons. And with inflation, commissary items are priced higher than ever. For example, according to the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, incarcerated people in Kentucky experienced a 7.2 percent rise in already-high commissary prices in July 2022. Researchers noted that a 4.6-ounce tube of Crest toothpaste, which costs $1.38 at the local Walmart, is $3.77 at the prison commissary. [...]

In Gaston County, North Carolina, incarcerated individuals who participate in state work release may make more than the state’s $0.38 an hour maximum pay, but they pay the jail a daily rate based on their yearly income of at least $18 per day and up to $36 per day. In fact, Brennan Center research indicates that almost every state takes a portion of the salary that incarcerated workers earn to compensate the corrections agency [...].

These room and board fees are found throughout the nation’s jails and prisons. Michigan laws allow any county to seek reimbursement for expenses incurred in relation to a charge for which a person was sentenced to county jail time -- up to $60 a day. Winnebago County, Wisconsin, charges $26 a day to those staying in its county jail.

---

Text by: Lauren-Brooke Eisen. “America’s Dystopian Incarceration System of Pay to Stay Behind Bars.” Brennan Center for Justice. 19 April 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[sophieinwonderland]

i have a question, if youre willing to answer.

i dont want resources, i’ve likely already read them.

we’re a traumagenic programmed system. typically the thought of someone without trauma having this disorder upsets us, because what we went through was so severe that it seems unfair to people without trauma to have to live the same hell as us.

it seems like the only reason someone would be a system without trauma would be by choice.

i would like to hear your explanation for endogenic systems. as i already said, ive read plenty of journals on non trauma based plurality. i dont include spiritual plurality as to me that is an entirely different field.

all i would like to know is your version or perspective of why endogenic systems exist without any trauma whatsoever. when i say this, i mean the type of formative years that would leave a singlet with fondest memories of childhood, nothing bad or stressful, a peaceful parents and environment, etc.

this is not for syscourse, i dont engage with negativity like that.

im open to learning, and i will always peacefully coexist with opposing views to my own, but again, i do my research and have already read many of both the popular and obscure journals on non trauma based plurality that i have found.

-

i dont know if you’ll answer this, though i do hope so, and im not sure how often you get anonymous asks like this, but just in case, you can consider me as anon M.

much respect to you, and i hope you have a good day/night.

-M

Sure!

I'm curious if, in your research, you've also looked into studies into "imagined companions."

These are what I actually find most interesting. Now, "imagined companion" is a loaded term from a singlet-normative perspective that ASSUMES a single consciousness per body. But recent research into ICs have shown a reality that is far more complicated than that, with a majority of ICs seemingly possessing will of their own.

Current research shows about a third of ICs appear to be fully controlled by the host child. These are pretty much what you imagine they would be when you hear terms like "imaginary friend" thrown around. These aren't what I'm interested in.

At the other end of the spectrum are researchers call "noncompliant" imaginary friends. These do have will of their own but exhibit harmful and often bullying behavior. I think many of these would be traumagenic in nature, or at least trauma-affected. If a child's IC is bullying them, that hints that something has likely gone wrong in their homelife, and they're emulating toxic behaviors.

What I find most interesting then is this middle third. Those who demonstrate autonomy while being generally supportive, positive relationships in the lives of their hosts.

It's in this group that we find the strongest evidence of natural multiplicity in children. And it's a pretty massive percentage of the population.

Some studies have shown more than 60% of children have had imagined companions in childhood before the age of 7.

Extrapolating, this means as many as 40% of children, 2 in every 5, would experience childhood plurality, with other people in their heads with their own will.

About 1-in-5 would fall into the category of having these sorts of positive childhood headmates.

To me, the issue isn't a question of why natural multiplicity exists. It seems to me that it just does. Some people are just naturally multiple in childhood.

To me, the issue is what happens to it afterwards. Where do these headmates go? Why do some people keep them?

For the first question, this seems a result of forced conformity. Tell children that their ICs aren't real and that they need to outgrow them, and the ICs will either be forced into dormancy or fuse with the host child.

Their singlethood is sociogenic.

But a fraction will remain. The ICs will be stronger than normal or the host child won't let go of them. And they'll stick around to adulthood. Since they "know" a simple imaginary friend can't be real or think for themselves, they may turn to spiritual explanations for what they experience.

Most will feel alone in their experiences, feel crazy, and never tell others about these headmates.

I'll also add that these systems are usually unable to switch. Switching appears to usually need a dissociative capacity from either intentional dissociative practices such as those in tulpamancy and many spiritual practices, or from trauma.

These systems can learn to switch but it's not inherent to their plurality.

Those are my thoughts anyway! Good day to you too, and thanks for the question! 😁💖

[watermelonsloth]

Itachi and the Uchiha Massacre

This might be one of the most controversial posts I’ll ever make.

I find myself very undecided about how I feel about Itachi’s role in the Uchiha massacre. It fills me with the same moral indecision and disgust of the trauma olympics (aka the comparing of “who had it worse”). Every time I try to come to a consensus, I immediately doubt my conclusion and question whether I’m giving Itachi too much of the benefit of the doubt or I’m not taking his circumstances into account enough. It’s like asking if him being a child outweighs him killing children. And that makes me uncomfortable.

On the one hand, he did something very very very bad. He killed an entire clan of people, including who knows how many innocent civilians and children. He then proceeded to psychologically torture his seven year old brother with the memories of him doing so. Prior to being met with this specific conundrum, I would’ve said without hesitation that this is a black-and-white situation with Itachi being solidly in the wrong. Even if he wasn’t the only perpetrator, he still would deserve much of the blame for being one of the executors of such an abhorrent act.

I cannot stress enough how terrible the massacre would’ve been in practice.

However, and this is where I might lose a few of you, as more information is revealed, one question nags at my entire fucking central nervous system. How much of a choice did Itachi really have?

To understand the full circumstances, first you have to understand that the context falls under two categories: who Itachi is (and his perspective) and what position he was in when he made the decision he did. First, who he is:

Itachi grew up in a militaristic village that normalizes violence, especially violence being used to solve problems.

This village has also normalized putting the village’s survival over oneself and one’s friends/family.

He was alive to see the very end of the third shinobi war and the nine tails attack, two events that have solidified his belief that war is the worst thing ever and should be prevented at all costs.

Hiruzen, Danzo, Kakashi, and Shisui encourage his belief that war should be avoided at any and all costs. Three of them are authority figures (see the Milgram experiment for why that’s relevant) and one of them is his first and only best friend.

He is a very introverted and closed off person. He’s so closed off that not even his immediate family can read him. Because of this, his inner circle is very small (meaning he has a very small support network).

He grew up with a strict, authoritarian father and entered the anbu at a young age, meaning he grew up being expected/pressured to obey those in positions of power without asking questions.

He’s an introvert who’s scared of conflict and keeps his head down.

Second, his actual position when he was told to kill his clan (I might be missing some, so feel free to add any others you remember.):

He was thirteen. That is a child in grade 8. That is the age of most genin.

Tensions between his family and village are implied to have been rising for a while and are now at the point that, for whatever reason, negotiation is deemed impossible.

Tensions are so high that if the village doesn’t act soon, the Uchiha’s coup will spark an all out civil war.

The Uchiha clan has little to no chance of winning the conflict and will likely have most (if not all) of its members killed in it. Plus, the conflict would’ve also resulted in many casualties on Konoha’s side as well, including civilians, children, and shinobi who had nothing to do with what was happening.

Tensions between him and his father are extremely high as well with the two of them being implied to regularly argue.

His best friend, possibly only friend, died by jumping off of a cliff in front of him after giving him one of his eyes and left the responsibility of handling the entire situation to him.

He’s being suspected for the murder of said best friend (and was flat out accused of it in front of his younger brother by three adult police officers) and is suspected as being more loyal to the village than to his clan, making him even more of an outcast to his clan.

He's aware that his best friend was attacked and mutilated by Danzo, one of the village leaders and his superior. If he wants any action taken against Danzo, he’ll have to fight a solo, uphill battle against all of the village leaders and risk losing all sway over the Uchiha situation (which would still be a ticking time bomb) in the process.

If he doesn’t want to fight a two sided war or lose what little power he has in the situation, his safest option is to follow orders while pushing for a plan where casualties are minimized.

Did Itachi have other options? Yes, I’m not gonna pretend that genocide was Itachi’s only choice. But a lot of people seem to forget how difficult or flawed a lot of his alternatives would have actually been in practice.

For example, I’ve seen a lot of people throw around the idea of Itachi just grabbing Sasuke and leaving the village. First of all, the massacre still would’ve happened, Itachi and Sasuke just wouldn’t have been there for it. Second, Itachi would’ve had to remove Sasuke from the village without being caught by the village or the Uchiha clan when he was under the scrutiny of both. Itachi is a good shinobi, but I don’t know if he’s that good. Third, how would he even get Sasuke to go along with him? Itachi may not have been close to his clan, but Sasuke loved his clan. Yes, Sasuke also loved Itachi, but it’s a pretty big stretch to say that seven-year-old Sasuke would’ve just gone along with it, especially when he wouldn’t have been able to understand the true scale of the situation. (Itachi would pretty much have to kidnap Sasuke for this plan to work.) Fourth (and similarly), people don’t tend to like uprooting their entire lives to leave the home they grew up in, even in emergency situations or when it’s the objectively better/safer option. Itachi and Sasuke, who were both raised to be “lay down their lives” loyal to their home, would’ve been especially averse to this idea. Fifth, even if they got over all of that and got out of the village, Itachi would have to raise his younger brother alone at thirteen years old while being on the run from a world power with no protection in a world where they’re at risk of being killed or getting the attention of creeps like Orochimaru simply for having kekkei genkai. It’s not like Itachi had outside contacts (beside Obito but Obito would not have helped them even if Itachi trusted him enough to trust Sasuke’s life to him) or there was a benevolent nation to take them in. Even if they managed to one day settle into a peaceful life, it would’ve taken years of fighting to survive before they’d have gotten there. Cool fanfic idea, but making Itachi slightly more innocent isn’t a solution.

The idea that Itachi should’ve just told the Uchiha clan what was going on and got help from them is similarly short sighted. The Uchiha clan were the victims in this situation, but they weren’t perfect angels either. Itachi was not close to, or particularly well liked by, his clan. Save for Shisui (who is theoretically dead in this scenario) and Sasuke, he had no emotional connection to the clan, only vague respect and a waning sense of responsibility towards it. And even if he did go to them, Itachi telling them what was happening would’ve just sparked a civil war, the one thing Itachi was desperate to avoid and the thing that would’ve gotten them all killed.

So…

What was the point of all this?

I’ll admit that I hoped typing out my thoughts would somehow end in me settling on an opinion, but right now I’m still just as undecided and significantly more depressed. Because, like, it’s just a depressing, shitty situation where there were victims and perpetrators and Itachi who just so happened to be both. Maybe trying to ask if Itachi is either “good” or “evil” is asking the wrong question. Maybe the entire discussion about how moral Itachi is as a person or all of the other choices he could’ve made is missing the point.

[bakafox]

Having to unsubscribe from more and more 'leftist' Youtubers who are committing to the bit that it's more important to bash the Democratic party and Joe Biden as if they're just as bad as Trump than it is to just focus on the fact that Trump and the GOP are the absolute fucking worst.

Especially since they keep pulling the 'Biden is senile and a drooling zombie' card since the fucking debate. Biden's fucking speech impediment has always been known about. He's always had pauses and problems finding words sometimes because of it, like friends of mine who struggle with that sort of shit do. 'Debating' someone like Trump on live TV isn't something a president needs to be able to do, but they'll focus on that gleefully and still never bring up all the left-leaning policies the Biden Administration has successfully pushed over the last 4 years or that were blocked by the fact Dems don't control congress, senate, or the supreme courts and

I am just begging people who haven't recently refreshed themselves on how the US system even is supposed to work to watch some stuff and refresh themselves.

Like, is the system pretty busted and rooted in shitty racist and classist shit? Yes, but it's not going to be fixed before this election, just like it isn't fixed before other elections because not enough people are willing to work for things like ranked choice voting in between election cycles.

But the system also isn't completely dead yet, and right now there's game plans and blueprints on how to at least survive within it- and how to push for changes in between big election cycles by voting the right people in during even smaller election cycles.

Those are the times you beef up third party ideals or whatever, because yes, right now, when the presidential election happens the only two choices that mean anything numerically for the electoral vote system are Republican and Democrat.

If you want to call that 'not a real election' or whatever, fine, but even if there's only two choices, one choice is still actively less harmful than the other, and if the only applicable choices in a shitty election have differences, and electoral results actually have a chance of being honored even if the less awful side wins it's still actually an election that matters. Is it a shitty choice? Is it not much of a choice? It's still a choice, and it's still a difference that can be made.

Of course with Project 2025, the Republicans plan to finish gutting and rearranging the US government to suit their desire for a theocratic dictatorship, which means they are actively working to make elections completely irrelevant or end them entirely. There will no longer be even a map or blueprint for anyone who isn't a white heterosexual Christian (of the kinds of Christians they approve of, I will bet five dollars that once in office the evangelical protestant type Christians are going to start throwing other denominations under the bus, because five dollars is all I even have right now,) to follow.

All of the between-election activism and community support and service that needs to be done is already hard, too, yes, but it will be much harder if Trump, a guy who has literally talked about having protestors on college campuses shot or deported as Hamas sympathizers, and people who think like him and will unequivocally back him takes over.

There's no real choice, but if the Democrats control senate, house, and presidency, there's actually room for a choice to grow if people don't just give up the minute the election is over and actually seek and work towards the reforms that are desired.

If the GOP gets any more seats and the presidency, I cannot stress enough that we are probably going to be living in an actual, literal, dictatorship, which by all definitions, the US is currently not, despite what I see people trying to twist definitions around to say it is because a 2 party system isn't great.

I am just so tired right now, the lives of so many people, including those of people I know personally, are on the line with this vote. I've only just gotten to celebrate things the Biden administration has done for disabled Americans and yet I know that if Trump is elected, we're going to go immediately at least back to shit like 'people buying you food can reduce or stop your SSI' if not worse since the GOP are pretty open about wanting to axe Medicaid and disability with social security.

Biden's administration has put protections for LGBT people in at the federal level, and it is remaining state's rights shit that's keeping it bad in red states, which is complicated as fuck, but if the GOP get their way, their stripping out the idea of state's rights will go after the states that are sheltering trans people or providing abortion care and asylum.

Project 2025 and Trump have made a VERY big deal out of wanting to deport millions of people and have ICE raiding churches and schools. (Oh hey remember what I said about even other Christians are gonna get shat on if maybe they're inclusive or whatnot?)

And for that single issue: Yes, Trump will be worse for Palestine. Also worse for Ukraine, Sudan, and pretty much everywhere else there is a genocide happening.

There isn't a 'real' choice, is the argument, but there still is a choice, and it's one that has to be made to try and reduce harm and keep the boot from being so firmly on everyone's neck that no one can breathe well enough to fight it.

There also is not going to be a glorious revolution formed if Trump wins, there's going to be concentration camps, deportations, increased incarceration for profit, no social safety net at all, and more and more deaths including state-sponsored violence and murders. Facists like Putin, Bibi, etc will be emboldened and given more actual weaponry and support.

On paper maybe it sounds like something that makes a revolution happen in the US, but in reality it is far more likely that it further divides and crushes people into inaction.

Also in reality the US has a fucking huge military with drone strike capabilities and the Republicans will not hesitate to make the poor neighborhoods of any US city into craters, and groups of actual revolutionaries will be very scattered and isolated and much more poorly armed because the US is a big space- and there can be no counting on Canada, Mexico, or any other nations in the world for help. That'll be the start of WW3.

If there is a revolution against a GOP dictatorship it is not going to be glorious, it is not going to go well. It should not even be being considered as a preferred option by anyone who claims to be 'for the people' compared to harm reductive voting and then community activism and pushes for voting and government reform in a setting where there is still some freedom to do that.

[mezimraky]

So what on earth is happening with the Czech election right now? Who is this general? Do people actually want Babiš? How does this vote work?

it's complicated! essentially, what is happening in czech rep right now is the third ever direct presidential election. meaning, every citizen over the age of 18 gets a vote. the last two elections ended with miloš zeman as the winner. miloš zeman is a bitter old man who is a rude drunk but people felt represented by him, and so elected him twice.

the second time around there was a big wave of dislike for zeman but the voters did not manage to pool in to one other candidate but instead spread to at least three fractions, making it impossible to beat zeman. this is not the case this year, with this election.

the first round of the election ended with two favourites. generál petr pavel and andrej babiš. they both had around 30something% of votes and ended within less than a percent to each other.

andrej babiš, the poplusist oligarch, is the head of the biggest political party in the country, ANO. andrej babiš is also a businessman who first went into politics in cca 2011 and his main positive was that "as a rich businessman he would not need to steal from the people as a politician." and "as a successful businessman he can run the country like he runs his company". they essentially built their popularity on populist policies that range the whole political spectrum without much of a system or reliability. they would form alliance with anyone who allowed them to be in the position of power.

the prominence of ANO has indirectly caused a crisis in democracy. the two sides of the political spectrum are out of balance. ANO's populist policies have replaced the political left almost entirely. if you'd watched the last government election last year, you'd see that the fight was no longer between the left and the right but between populism and democracy. the democratic right has won at the cost of forming a giant coalition made out of five different parties. they really needed that many in order to beat the ever so popular ANO, and babiš himself.

and this appears to be happening again. the choice of the second round of the presidential election is between babiš and generál pavel. babiš being a populist who will say just about anything to win (including pointing at the general's millitary past and claiming that he will drag our country into the war, take your kids away and whatever else). generál pavel being a guy with diplomatic experience in NATO, who mostly bases his campaign on his unshakeable calm and order. which, to be fair, following the many years with miloš zeman does seem like a very alluring concept.

both babiš and pavel also have a communist past, much like most people their age in this country. while pavel was a regular party member (and gained part of his millitary training under the old regime), andrej babiš has been proven to cooperate with the secret police at the time, being their secret agent of sorts. the cynics would tell you that there its not a real choice, that its between a communist and an agent, that they both suck. but.

it's not just the choice between two people. it's once again between a real diplomat and a liar. they are many poignant arguments concerning these two, but let me just focus on this one, as it is the most important one to me. babiš as a person does not stand for anything. he will say anything to get what he wants. he contradicts himself on the regular and does not cope well with being called out. he makes himself out to be an underdog but he was the prime minister until last year, and as a prime minister proved himself to be both completely spineless and worthless. and yet, his loyal fans seem to forget. they seem to have a weird sort of parasocial relationship with the kind grandpa in a turtleneck that he presents himself as on the social networks. they don't care what he did or didn't do. they like him as a person. they don't care what he would do to the image or political orientation of our country. they don't care. they care that he baked a delicious vánočka the other day, just like they do, every christmas!!!!

generál pavel has his own minuses, one of the ones that get thrown around a lot-- having millitary past, it's not all clear what he's done while in the millitary. having had diplomatic affiliations before, they say we can't know for sure where all his allegiances lay. and he was a communist after all. but. the thing is. he's the only other option we've got. and he's not all bad. he speaks well, he's consistent in his opinions, and he's willing to listen to marginalised groups for reasons other than to make himself look good.

and he's decent. and unaffiliated with a particular political party. insistent on democratic values. it's a low bar, i know. but it's the best hope we've got...

[boundinparchment]

Deus In Absentia - IV

The first time was a coincidence. The second time was a fluke. But the third time? You were starting to think it was fate. Or, more likely, a calculated trap. Reposted from my previous blog, @/zhonglis-empty-wallet AO3

As you imagined, there was only the illusion of choice; if a Harbinger wanted a resource, they got it, one way or another.

You were given quarters among some of the other, higher ranking Fatui members; a small room with a single window, bed, wardrobe, desk, and attached bathroom only large enough to serve its purposes.  At least you didn’t have to share.

The room was a respite you would probably use very little, you came to quickly realize.

Most of your time was spent in Dottore’s labs and the adjacent rooms down in Haerasys.  Reading, organizing, sorting.  You tried not to think too hard about the dark stains at the edges of stray pieces of paper or the screaming from the sub-basement.  

The tour you received of the facilities didn’t include the cells where specimens and subjects were kept.  In fact, you were explicitly told to not go down there.  Probably for the best, if the topics you were glimpsing over were anything to go by.  Krupp had dragged you along once, and only once, and you suddenly understood what he meant by ‘human resources’ in your first meeting.

You’d held your own throughout Krupp’s tirade, expressionless, until you arrived back in the privacy of your rooms, where your stomach protested what little dinner you’d eaten and your mind refused to let you sleep.  Human experimentation, especially on children…confused, lost, scared…it was wrong.

And you would, no doubt, join them when Dottore was finished with you.  Death would be a mercy.  And he was the furthest thing from merciful. ____________________

“Archivist!”

You winced. Over the past few weeks, you learned quickly to distinguish the differences in his tone when he used your title.  He never called you by your name.  It was better that way, you supposed.  Professional.

Or perhaps, as you occasionally heard from recruits in the hall and the hushed whispers people dropped in your ear, he was entirely incapable of connecting with others.  The other Harbingers kept their distance unless otherwise required.  Their own staff were just as wary.  After all, Dottore loved to see them squirm whenever he had the chance.

He shouted again, more frustrated than before, and you hastily made your way to his main workshop.  The Second had his back to the entrance as he scanned a large bookshelf, one you only finished organizing days prior.  Already in disarray.  Again.

“Yes, Lord Harbinger?”

Krupp referred to Dottore as master.  

You would do no such thing.  You, at least, had dignity.  Dottore might have taken everything from you so far but he couldn’t take that.

The good doctor held a book in his hand and waved it about, making it difficult to see the title.  “Where are the additional volumes for this?!  They were right here!  You’re making such a mess, Archivist.” 

Dottore’s fury initially made your blood run cold when you first experienced it but you’d pushed through it as soon as you realized you were right about the topic.  He wasn’t much different than a disgruntled customer at times, really.  Others on the receiving end of the Harbinger’s ire were quick to beg and soothe and plead.

Not you.

You approached cautiously, as you had on the first day in Haerasys, and held out a hand for the book.  Dottore frowned but begrudgingly handed it to you before crossing his arms.

“The shelves were reorganized to their initial system you used, based on Universal Decimal.  Topics regarding Divinity and the Abyss are…” you ran a finger lightly over spines as you made your way across the shelves, “here.  They’re then sorted by title, since most of these are written by unknown authors.”

You pulled out the additional volumes in question and presented them to the Harbinger.

“The shelves are labeled, Lord Harbinger.  And there’s a list of inventory attached to the end of the shelf with their intended location.”

Dottore clicked his tongue against his teeth and took the books from you in a single sweep of his arm.  He brought the titles back to the table where he was tinkering on a smaller device and was quickly lost in his work again.

Your system would be useless if he didn’t use it as intended.  The entire point was to eliminate this exact situation, so his resources would be easy to find.  Tools and instruments were labeled, returned to their locations; why wouldn’t his research materials be treated the same way?

You turned on your heel to leave and then, against your better judgment, turned back towards Dottore.

“Is the system I’ve come up with useless for you, Lord Harbinger?”

You hadn’t meant for the exasperation to be as pronounced.  The system was easy enough for customers to follow in your store, after all, or a similar version.  He seemed to navigate the shelves during his visits with ease, immediately understanding the organizational structure.  But if it didn’t work, it was better to know and resolve it than continue on under false pretenses that everything was fine.

Dottore held his place on a page with a finger and looked up, red eyes wider than usual.

“What gave you that impression, Archivist?”

“If you’re unable to find what you need–”

The Harbinger cut you off.  “Few have efficiently stuck to a system that makes sense long enough for it to be useful.  Even one as peerless as myself can adjust when something is more optimal than before.”

You held his gaze, remembering his words to you regarding displaying your organs, and nodded.  In the distance, you heard a shrill scream from the nearby staircase that led to the sub-basement.  You suppressed a shudder, remembering the wide eyes and the pleading, weakened and starved bodies...

Dottore drew your attention back to him as he said, “I expect nothing less than perfection.”

You bowed, your mouth suddenly refusing to work, and before you raised your head, Dottore continued.  

“You’ll know when I’m dissatisfied, Archivist.”  His tone was final, dismissive and threatening.  

You didn’t want to linger anyway.

[gr1an]

Okay I think it's time we all start manifesting the gemtho team up in the next life series. Etho is the brain and Gem is the muscle. It'll happen I promise. not even a question in my mind they're gonna be unstoppable and we will get fanfictions from it for months just you wait. honestly you're crazy if you don't think it's gonna happen because them not teaming up is literally impossible (manifest with me)

Or we get a team of Etho and his fanclub (Joel, Bdubs and Gem)

PLS gem was so good in secret life i’d love for her to be in the next series and YES i’d love for her next group to have etho in it especially if the next season’s gimmick is related to how the last winner (scar) won. or the lesson he learned from it. bc i really like the theory that the winners of the previous series influence the next one.

(warning: hyperfixation infodump that is barely tangentially connected)

grian won third life, and saw that the lives you have or lose aren’t your choice. some are born lucky, some are lucky to be born. then last life had randomly assigned lives.

then scott won last life. he won it in the series where he had someone he could trust with his life the entire time. then double life had soulmates.

pearl won double life. she absolutely won it by her own means, but the final death was her soulmate sacrificing himself. then last life has a system that gives +30 min no matter how much time the person you kill is on. teammate sacrifices rule supreme.

martyn wins last life. he does it by suddenly being overwhelmed by the watcher’s attention and losing his mind to turn on his teammates. then secret life includes a statue of a watcher giving out secret tasks that have everyone acting out of character.

then scar wins secret life. 1) he didn’t even know he’d won at first. 2) he was forced into doing something time after time that almost never actually ended up working in his favor. 3) he was alone the whole time.

those three things could lead to some INTERESTING gimmicks

not knowing really messed him up. as well as all the other stuff ppl kept hidden this series. nobody has any more secrets to hide. panopticon you are not able to hide ANYTHING. meaning that the teams are absolutely going to be less. adventurous than they previously have been. if they can’t trust you with everything they will trust you with nothing.

roles like in the game mafia are a thing. you don’t get to choose whether you’re the healer or the sheriff or the mafia. but you have to act your part to win.

something about the gimmick makes long term alliances actually result in worse outcomes. those that team together become that much more obvious.

sorry this was supposed to be about gemtho but i had thoughts that i couldn’t stop lol

[sophia-sol]

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (aka Mo Dao Zu Shi), by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

When I watched The Untamed (hereafter CQL) in 2021, my immediate thought upon finishing was that I HAD to read the book (hereafter MDZS) it was based on. Now, more than two years later, I have finally done that.

And it's so good you guys!

And also, really very different from CQL.

I knew that already, because on top of the way that inevitably at least some things get changed in any adaptation process, I understand that the complex system of chinese censorship has standards for a wide variety of different things not being allowed to be shown on tv. And several of those things are integral to the version of the story in MDZS.

Being now familiar with the versions of the story told in both tv and book, I think the difference that's the biggest is the moral universe being presented by the themes of each story. CQL is the story of a person who always tries his best to do what's right, and is treated poorly by society because of it, but eventually is able to triumph. MDZS is the story of a person who makes some huge mistakes and then has to (gets to?) learn how to live with them.

Both are wonderful stories worth telling! And they have a lot in common. But they are not, in the end, the same story. Going forward I will definitely be paying more attention to which version is being tagged as the fandom when I open fic!

I do feel like I'm not quite up to writing a coherent review of the book right now though. I read the first two-thirds or so back in April, and then accidentally took a multi-month break from reading it, and then read through the remainder over the course of the last few weeks. So the beginning portions of the book are fuzzy in my head and easy to confuse with everything else I have read about CQL/MDZS and the fanfic of both, and it's hard to hold the shape of the entire narrative in my head.

But I do have a few more notes! Most of which are varyingly spoilery for either or both of CQL & MDZS

One is how the Jin Guangyao storyline in MDZS more closely adheres to the theme of "making choices, experiencing consequences" imo. In CQL, JGY is kicked out from the Nie sect because of killing the supervisor who treated him poorly, but in the book he leaves the Nie on good terms, and the incidents which make Nie Mingjue distrust and dislike him happen after he's already gone. JGY really could have just stuck around the Nie sect comfortably and with respect if he chose! But he wanted the things he could get from seeking his dad's approval even more. It's about what you decide to prioritize and go after.

I enjoy how MDZS goes more back and forth with the timelines, and you can see current Wei Wuxian having opinions about the past. And I love how WWX just sees his past self as super cringe, rather than like condemning himself or anything!

There are several really excellent female characters in MDZS, but they do not get a lot of page time, so I appreciate CQL's efforts to increase the presence and narrative relevance of the female characters.

The way everyone just calls the Wens Wen-dogs as a standard term is so uncomfortable to me. Dehumanizing your enemy is a classic strategy in war, for understandable reasons, and it does definitely serve to remind me regularly just how much all the main characters are in a war mindset! Which is why it's so uncomfortable lol. But that's like. a good thing. Nobody in this story is morally pure!

Speaking of not morally pure, I was fascinated to see that the distinction CQL makes between the Dafan Wen as pacifist doctors and the Qishan Wen as supporting Wen Ruohan is straight up not present in MDZS. Wens are Wens, and Wen Qing and Wen Ning are important close members of Wen Ruohan's family, and the Wen remnants include cultivators. I appreciate this too! You cannot separate people into "these ones are evil and deserve to die" and "these ones are completely blameless and have never done anything wrong ever." Love to reject a binary.

But then as well, when Wei Wuxian rescues Wen Ning and the others from the work camp, as far as I can tell from what the narrative tells us, he doesn't actually take all the prisoners, only those who are connected with Wen Ning and Wen Qing in some way - which makes it come across less as "I am taking a moral stand about the treatment of prisoners" and more "I owe a debt to the Wen siblings and must repay it."

I also appreciated the bit of context about what work specifically the Wens were being made to do at Qionqi path - remove aggrandizing stonework depictions of Wen accomplishments to replace it with similar ones but for the Jin. It's clear it's meant as, like, something humiliating for the Wens to have to do.

Lan Wangji is described in both MDZS and CQL in the post-sunshot era as someone who "goes where the chaos is" and I had always understood that previously to mean that he seeks out the biggest chaos. But MDZS makes it clear that what it means by the term is that he's willing to go deal with any situation that needs addressing even if it's small-scale and would be considered beneath him and won't enhance his reputation in the high echelons of cultivator society he was raised in. Love this for him. I wonder if this is what CQL also meant, and I just failed to read it correctly?

And then of course there are things like the absence of a second flautist, which I did already know about from fandom discussions, which is kind of emblematic of the difference between the two narratives.

(oh also. This is very personally motivated but I'm grateful CQL was not able to include more depiction of cannibalism and reanimated corpses because that would be a LOT for me to watch in the more visceral medium of television! and there are so many corpses in MDZS! I think it's very good and appropriate in the book, and I'm glad it stayed in the book.)

idk I feel like I'm spending most of this review talking about MDZS only as relates to CQL which feels a bit unfair to MDZS as the originator, like I'm not respecting it as its own thing! But it's hard for me to talk about it in any other way after having spent the last two years so much in the fandom. If I'd come to MDZS before I ever knew anything about CQL this would be reading very differently!

At some point I do want to do a closer reading of MDZS to appreciate it better for what it specifically is doing, like the way I'm currently doing a TGCF close read on mastodon. There's so much fruitful stuff to pay attention to in any work by MXTX.

Anyway please rec me fic that is particularly good at being based in MDZS canon! I want to spend more time exploring it!

[timeclonemike]

Meet The Villains

Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The plotline of the main quest has been summarized as "two supervillains try to conquer the world at the same time and trip over each other's schemes and also there's a third guy" which dispenses with a lot of nuance (and character development, lore, and side quest hooks) but is otherwise accurate. The "Main" Villain is called Silas Van Der Horne, an Occultech researcher and Rationalist; he is the first character the player sees in the game, as he is responsible for the ritual that summons outside forces to the universe in the form of a player to begin with. The "Classic" Villain is Ben Waters, leader of a conspiracy within the government of Veck with the intention of taking over the country and then immediately engaging in a war of expansionist conquest over the rest of the region. The "Surprise" Villain is determined through the consequences of player choices when dealing with the first two villains.

Silas Van Der Horne: Silas gets very little screen time beyond the opening cutscene until Act 3, when he becomes aware of the Hero and the party trying to stop him and takes a more active role in events; for most of Act 1 and 2 he is obliquely mentioned as consolidating his power base and doing obscure magic research. As a scientifically minded magic user, his plans are based around the harnessing and exploitation of otherwise neutral systems - natural resources, civil infrastructure, magical energy cycles - and he is directly responsible for the most iconic threats in the series such as dino cavalry, power armor, and automatons. His master plan involves building a portal to another universe (revealed in the opening cutscene to the observant) but his motive for doing so is only hinted at until his climactic battle with Ben Waters at the end of Act 6.

Ben Waters: Waters' political and paramilitary influence is an open secret throughout the first two acts and his influence on events makes him the most obvious and pervasive danger to the Hero and the Party until Act 3. Waters is alternately characterized as either a sociopathic manipulator or a necessary evil, even by his own allies and minions, and discovering his motivations is an entire side quest that is not even necessary to progress in the main quest. Waters' strengths and efforts focus on people and the social structures they belong to, so his influence is most often seen in the form of bribery, extortion, confidence games, propaganda, and brainwashing that gives him leverage over existing organizations - including the minions of Silas Van Der Horne.

Mayor Etheridge: The Honorable Mayor of Arcadia, Johan Etheridge, is introduced as a comic relief character that lampoons the concept of elected officials who are selected for their personality rather than their competence in problem solving and administration. If the player has either weakened both Silas and Waters' organizations equally, or failed to do so, by the time of their confrontation in Act 6, the end result is a power vacuum that Mayor Etheridge fills almost immediately; it is implied that his alleged incompetence was just a smokescreen to make his own staff underestimate him while he worked behind the scenes to take over more of the city than the parts he was elected to run.

General Caine: If more damage is done to Waters leading up to Act 6, General Caine of the Republic of Veck enacts martial law and attempts to purge the nation of Waters' conspiracy at any cost. This is ostensibly out of paranoia; it is eventually revealed that when Waters served under Caine in the military, Caine's strategic incompetence got his unit almost completely wiped out save for himself and Waters, and Waters was drummed out of the service to protect Caine's reputation. Caine's general incompetence and jumping at shadows means that Veck is too busy looking for the enemy within to mount an effective defense against Silas Van Der Horne's dinosaur army; whether or not Caine survives the attack depends entirely on if the Hero goes after Silas when given the prompt to chase one villain or the other, and attacking Silas then means that Caine's scorched earth tactics frame the final act.

Doctor Ashton: If more damage is done to Silas Van Der Horne's organization before Act 6, his second in command rallies the survivors around a new banner and upsets the existing balance of power by using several magically augmented "doomsday" weapons. Notably, Doctor Ashton does this even if recruited by the Hero; if relationship flags are negative, Ashton shrugs off any conflict by claiming the Hero is just as bad as his former employer, while good relationship flags show the Doctor being much more conflicted about the choice while his dialog hints at some greater danger that had been uncovered by Silas during his research.

Insecure Party Members: Other recruitable party members may turn on the Hero during the events of Act 6, but this is dependent on a combination of two factors. First, specific choices must be made in previous acts when trying to stop or slow down either Silas or Waters. Second, the party member in question must be in the active party with the Hero leading up to the climax of Act 6. This party member ends up taking over the leftover resources of the villain that loses the fight at the end of Act 6, and takes the place of antagonist and final boss for the entire final act.

Kyle: For Kyle to betray the Hero, his relationship flags need to be mostly negative, and the Hero had to both agree to destroy the Forest Temple and follow through with it. Backing out after agreeing at first shows Kyle that the hero can be reasoned with if they are about to make a short sighted mistake, while resorting to blowing the temple up when the undead threat is too obvious to ignore is a completely different situation than deliberately wiping out cultural artifacts that pose no threat to anyone. Kyle's assault on the world involves armies of undead, sentient killer plants, and plagues that threaten global famine as he tries to wipe out all civilization to start over.

Astrolethe: For Astrolethe to betray the Hero, they must have ALL their lost memories restored, and the Hero must shout them down during the argument at the Astral Planetarium by using a disparaging, objectifying insult. Shouting an insult that is NOT dehumanizing, winning the argument via rational debate, or even losing the argument completely do not undermine their trust. Astrolethe threatens the world by attempting to launch satellites to bombard the surface with various weapons and occultech devices.

Claudia: For Claudia to betray the Hero, she has to be one step away from completing the Great Work. If she is two steps or more away, the temptation is not as strong, and if she has finished the Great Work, there is nothing to tempt her with. Claudia's threat to the world involves massive environmental damage as her Great Work goes wrong and the balance of nature is corrupted.

Erin: For Erin to betray the Hero, the Subliminal Transceiver project must still be operational and the Party must either not have discovered it or ignored it during mission planning. If the Hero treats it as a serious danger, jokes about using their own depraved thoughts as a weapon against the Transceiver, or jokes about the rest of the Party not reading their thoughts at certain times of day, Erin will not panic when the Transceiver starts working on the Party and will not lash out at the Hero. Erin's threat to the world involves armies of automatons modeled after the Hero and other members of the Party, and culminates in a fleet of airships bombing every major population center.

[everygame]

Guardians of the Galaxy (PS4)

Developed/Published by: Eidos Montreal / Eidos Released: 26/10/2021 Completed: 23/04/2023 Completion: Beat it. Trophies / Achievements: n/a

It sounds like a weird thing to say about a video game that is more correctly described as IP exploitation rather than a genuine creative work, but I was hoping for more from this.

I mean, I’m not sure why? I mean, I do know why, I’d heard the classic siren song of “it’s not as bad as people say” and for some reason that always makes me interested to play something. But Marvel’s video game output is inconsistent like the MCU never happened (well, because as far as the video games are concerned, it hasn’t) with different studios doing different things, like Square Enix bafflingly deciding the Avengers should have a games-as-a-service loot shooter, and because despite what the video games want to have you believe the MCU did happen, so an Avengers games-as-a-service loot shooter features a cast that look like they should be be standing outside Mann’s Chinese Theatre having their picture taken with tourists because all the actors were clever enough to not sign away their likeness rights.

Surprisingly–or perhaps, luckily–this doesn’t affect Guardians of the Galaxy too much, because most of the cast are aliens and everyone is sick of fucking Chris Pratt, so having another jerky looking white guy in the role barely matters. And I do think the design team made a genuinely good decision to just try and make a straight forward third-person shooter with a linear narrative and levels rather than giving in to the temptation to make some sort of open-world thing, even if the Guardians of the Galaxy’s wacky adventures might have suited more of a Mass Effect metagame, though that the game does try and include meaningful dialogue choices and Mass Effect-y squad combat mechanics.

It’s just that… It’s boring.

The team dynamic works–there’s constant chatter, and it’s honestly not that annoying. The needle drops are often funny (or at least, I was easily amused by them). But the pacing is all off, with long segments of what feels like just walking slowly from cut-scene to cut-scene, and then when you actually get to the combat it’s never, ever satisfying. I eventually gave up and bumped it down to the absolute easiest it could be and every enemy was still an insane bullet sponge, and the fact that you need to be constantly directing the other guardians to do things to make them cause any damage at all means there’s absolutely no flow. It’s entirely possible that the game’s stagger and elemental damage mechanics make killing enemies easier, but they’re poorly explained and as much as I thought I was using them correctly, maybe I wasn’t?

The game’s economy/upgrade system also doesn’t work; your upgrades for Star Lord are underwhelming and you will have them all by three quarters of the way through the game, meaning you can ignore the rest of the currency you find lying around the levels, and though there’s a limited number of guardian upgrades, you don’t really want more considering you can only use one at a time with cooldowns; you end up spamming a few favourites through the whole game anyway.

It’s all a bit of a bummer, because you can sort of feel that the team are trying to do something, it just doesn’t work. Maybe it was scheduling, pressure from the top or demands of the IP, but every little spark of fun in the writing or twists in the design are hammered down by the lengthy tedium of just grinding through the game, especially as the story is extremely underwhelming, suffering not just from some pretty picked over cliches but also really baffling character motivations at points.

Ironically, it’s only really that I have residual fondness for the characters/”IP” that carried me through this, which is a sorry state of affairs. Still, I’ve learned my lesson, even if it is being delisted I’m not touching The Avengers with a ten-foot barge pole.

Will I ever play it again? Why does a game like this have a New Game Plus, really? You unlock everything before you’ve even finished it! I’ll never look at this again, I doubt I’ll even think about it. Final Thought: The question is of course, is sitting through this worse than sitting through things like Ms. Marvel or She-Hulk? Trick question, you can look at your phone while those are on.

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[mariacallous]

Students and members of the public have taken to the streets in major cities across China, with protesters in Shanghai calling for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to step down—a rare sight in China, where protest is strictly curtailed. Coming shortly after the 20th Party Congress, which marked the beginning of Xi’s third term as CCP general secretary, these protests bear closer examination and consideration for their potential to affect China’s political situation and Xi’s grip on power—and even to usher in a “new era” of social movements akin to the wave of protests that swept the country in 1989.

Commentators calling these the largest protests since 1989 are mistaken. The Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao years saw mass protests that drew tens of thousands of participants or more, destroyed local government offices, and had to be put down by armed police. The crowds in videos emerging from protests in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, and other cities are generally small, ranging from several hundred to over a thousand. Rather, it is Xi’s heavy-handed suppression of social dissent over his time in office and his concomitant expansion of public expenditures and targeted poverty alleviation, buying the affections of the underclasses and all but eliminating open public protest, that makes the current wave of protests significant.

A common thread in these protests is people reaching the limits of their tolerance for the government’s zero-COVID policies. The “dynamic zero-COVID” approach the government has adopted capriciously deprives the public of their freedom and rights and has led to countless humanitarian disasters. One such disaster, a fire in a locked-down Urumqi apartment building, was the spark for students and members of the public to protest, as people around the country gather to mourn the lives lost in the fire.

The first Chinese city to be locked down was Wuhan, where the epidemic first broke out. The people of Wuhan silently endured lockdown for more than two months. Tianjin, Xi’an, Shenzhen, and other cities followed suit with lockdowns of varying degrees; these, too, were silently borne. When the entire city of Shanghai was locked down for two months starting this April, the public once again suffered in silence. What changed between then and the end of November?

One key event was the promulgation of the new “20 Articles” policy on pandemic control measures in early November. The policy promised a gradual loosening of restrictions, a welcome ray of hope for a public that had been trapped in place for three years, but when this resulted in a nationwide resurgence of outbreaks, authorities quickly reinstated tighter controls, dashing any hope of lockdowns being lifted. The repeated cycles of easing and tightening, caging people like lab rats, finally wore through the last of people’s patience. Under the government’s zero-COVID policies, everyone knows that they could be the next to suffer—including people inside the system, particularly officials and workers on the front lines of pandemic response, many of whom have long since burned out from exhaustion and overwork. Everybody wants a change—but as long as Xi does not, they will have no choice but to endure.

Sudden as these protests may seem, their broader context—particularly Xi’s actions over his decade in power—made them a virtual inevitability. Despite widespread fears that Xi would return China to the days of the Cultural Revolution, this isn’t something he can pull off alone. China isn’t North Korea, after all: The liberal reforms that followed the Cultural Revolution afforded the majority of Chinese people a basis to make comparisons with other ways of life, giving rise to interests that not even Xi can shake. Closing China off from the world would pose no benefit to the CCP or Xi himself, moreover, except insofar as it might be used to eliminate the system of private ownership.

Rather, fears of a return to the Cultural Revolution indicate widespread dissatisfaction with Xi’s line, policies, and ideals among members of the public, who have consistently opposed Xi’s attempts to shift the engine of history into reverse gear. Xi may have wanted to redirect the course of historical development, but the last 10 years have seen China generally continuing forward in its century-long transition to modernity. Historical precedent shows that during such transitions, growing awareness of civil rights eventually gives rise to public movements and public resistance, primarily in the form of collective action.

China is no exception. One of the ideological effects of the reform years was a resurgence of civic consciousness. This produced the 1989 student protest movement and subsequent waves of human rights actions and mass incidents. Xi has ensured that citizens’ rights activists and other oppositional forces will be sentenced harshly, but he hardly has the power to erase this civic consciousness from the brains of the public. The public simply hid it away for a while under pressure from the authorities; given a suitable chance and fertile soil, their demands for freedom and civil rights will flower again.

The rapid deterioration of China’s external environment, Xi forcing his way into a third term, and above all the government’s zero-COVID policy present a rare opportunity for public protest—and will nurture a movement for societal transformation.

U.S.-China tensions have imposed unprecedentedly severe strictures on China’s development environment, and the country’s economic woes are to a great extent the product of the U.S. geopolitical and technological containment of China, exacerbated by lockdowns in response to the pandemic. The economy continued its steep decline this year, triggering a wave of bankruptcies and unemployment and causing the public’s living standards and quality of life to decline dramatically.

The majority of China’s population was born in the 1970s or afterward: These people lack earlier generations’ firsthand experience of—and ability to cope with—poverty. Protracted personal and family hardships due to the pandemic and economic downturn are not, as time goes on, something they can adapt to—and this will drive them into the streets in protest. From the government’s perspective, this state of affairs is a ticking time bomb. It must be prevented from going off.

But the government’s approach to “defusing” the situation has been to further solidify the monolithic leadership of the CCP and build up its violent control over society, while at the same time partially satisfying popular demands for a more equitable distribution of wealth. Though this has weakened the basis for civic resistance in the short term, in the long term it will both fail to suppress dissatisfaction and resistance and, as state control weakens, actually promote the emergence of a popular political consciousness that will spur a sense of resistance and inspire action. The state’s total loss of the ability to sense and respond to public discontent makes this possibility all the more likely.

The reason lies in the fact that Xi’s focus on addressing wealth inequalities and funding poverty alleviation efforts after taking office forced the government to strengthen its extractive taxation capacity, exacerbating conflicts between the state and the industrial and commercial class. Entrepreneurs are laying low en masse, causing the economy to decline further. A regime that develops its extractive capacity (primarily in the form of taxation) and its coercive capacity (primarily in the form of violent control) while neglecting to develop its distributive and regulatory capacities and its ability to protect the public will produce an imbalance of state capacity, leading to widespread protest. Economic growth predicated on this basis will not only fail to bring general prosperity and social development but systematically create polarizing economic and social disparities, leading in turn to general social discontent and resentment and ultimately severely weakening the basic legitimacy of the regime.

This schema describes China before Xi: The Jiang and the Hu eras saw many instances of protest and mass incidents, but the fat years are over, and the improvements in wealth distribution are insufficient to remedy the public’s worsening losses from unemployment and will ultimately be unable to reduce conflicts between the people and the government.

We might say that even before the pandemic, political and economic winter had already come for China—but as 40 years of economic reforms had left individuals and the government with enough provisions set aside to weather the storm, the public’s sense of crisis was merely something on people’s minds and had not yet translated into collective acts of resistance. Three years into the pandemic, the Chinese economy is at a new low point. The cold is getting worse, supplies are running low, and the impact of the government’s zero-COVID policies has fallen hardest on the public’s fundamental rights and interests. The adversarial consciousness and acts of resistance so long suppressed by the government inevitably broke out: People tolerated it for as long as they could, and finally they couldn’t stand it anymore. The protests now going on in cities around China, led mostly by young people and university students, reflect a reawakening of civic consciousness under the ideological oppression of the state.

The government’s response to protesters’ demands will decide whether these protests will turn into nationwide social protests of Xi and the CCP. Despite some protesters shouting radical slogans, the protests have on the whole remained peaceful and free of violence. Demands from students and the public mainly focus on ending the government’s zero-COVID policy. If the government accedes to these demands—which are shared by a majority of the public—by relaxing pandemic restrictions and agreeing not to take reprisals against protesters, it should be able to quickly quell the protests.

If, however, the government determines that “hostile foreign forces” or domestic class enemies have infiltrated and instigated protests in hopes of bringing about regime change by fomenting a color revolution in China, the only possible next step will be violent suppression. Any bloodshed will intensify conflicts, awakening a long-standing sense of oppression among the public—and protests, which thus far have been limited to large cities (particularly university campuses), will spread across the country and form a surging, nationwide wave of resistance. In such an event, the public will increase its demands to include the end of the CCP’s one-party dictatorship.

It is unclear whether Xi envisioned this as a result of his zero-COVID policy, but clearly he has a sense of crisis: He has emphasized the need for a “spirit of struggle” and called on cadres to “dare to struggle and excel at struggling.” Perhaps, then, he has also made preparations and plans for social crisis and protests. Xi’s umwelt makes it unlikely that he will see the protests as merely an expression of dissatisfaction with zero-COVID, rather than a stalking horse for hostile forces—and if he acts on that understanding in ordering regional officials to handle the wave of protests, it will do nothing but escalate the situation.

However the government eventually handles the protests, their emergence so soon after the 20th Party Congress is a major blow to Xi’s authority and a message that his response to the pandemic over the last three years has been a failure—and by extension that he is not qualified to lead a great nation, which will shake the confidence of the CCP and embolden internal dissatisfaction with Xi, especially at the upper echelons. In embarking on a third term at the 20th Party Congress, Xi showed that there were no restraining forces on him within the party following his successful suppression of opposing factions. Discontent at high levels of the CCP has not vanished, however—it merely hid away, perhaps to be revivified by the present wave of protests. Even so, Xi and his trusted associates are in control of the party and the military, and open intraparty disputes are unlikely. The central government in Beijing will not split—not unless bloodshed escalates to nationwide protest.

[jigensass]

I posted 4,251 times in 2022

264 posts created (6%)

3,987 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@jigencaps

@justherefortheheists

@mmangaboi

@detectivehole

@oursamuraifreund

I tagged 933 of my posts in 2022

#jigen daisuke - 209 posts

#spoilers - 61 posts

#alaska - 51 posts

#part 6 spoilers - 37 posts

#jiglup - 37 posts

#lupin the third - 36 posts

#part 6 episode 21 - 26 posts

#jigen - 18 posts

#goemon ishikawa xiii - 17 posts

#yes - 17 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#cause i’m pretty sure my adhd genes came from my dad because his mannerisms are nearly identical to what i started to notice in myself when

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

148 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

#4

Send this to anyone who knows nothing about Lupin the Third without context and ask them to explain this

193 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

#3

Jiglup canon?

Jiglup canon.

218 notes - Posted July 20, 2022

#2

Let’s Talk about the Multiverse of Madness (objectively)

This is your only warning about spoilers for this movie so if you don’t have ‘spoilers’ blacklisted you have been warned. Also, this is gonna get pretty dark so also be warned for that.

Now that I have gotten the hype of watching this movie out of my system, I can now put my more tame thoughts into form. I did some reading on other peoples’ opinions about the film before writing this, so I am aware of their qualms with the film. However, this is my opinion about the film. I am also someone who has been a fan of Doctor Strange for almost ten years now (scary to think about when you realize I have been through Stephen’s entire MCU history from fruition to now on tumblr) and I have read the comics, so I know most of the lore.

Now, you don’t have to go into this film with much background information outside of the first film, Infinity War, and Wandavision, but if you know the lore like I do, you’re going to love this film. And loved this film I did so much I’m debating about going to the theater to watch it again, it was that good after thinking some things over. (Disclaimer I did not watch Wandavision and am not going to shovel money for Disney+ to watch Wandavision.)

I am going to touch upon all aspects of the film including lore, the future of the frachise, other people’s opinions, and what some people have seemed to missed with the theme of the film.

The first thing is that there is technically no villain, only a threat. That threat being Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch. This is someone who currently is going through mental distress to the point of obsession. The way some phrases such as how she explained her thoughts on how she felt about taking the Mind Stone out of Vision’s head was a very human way of tackling the big theme of the film, which was based around the actions of the characters, their consequences and how they affected the people around them, and how they dealt with the hand they’ve been given in life whether it be good or bad.

Wanda just happened to take her shitty hand and turn it up to 11 by going on a multiverse murder spree.

When Wanda killed herself, it wasn’t out of force, it was out of choice because of the sheer amount of guilt she felt over the things she did. You know, like a very depressed person with no more strings to grasp at. So they do the sudoku.

Wanda is supposed to be the negative representation to Stephen how people deal with loss and trauma. Stephen doesn’t understand what Wanda is going through because he has difficulty relating to others. It took seeing himself with the powers of the Darkhold and what it did to him to realize that he should move on from Christine and not be afraid of being truly alone like he has since his accident. This is represented by not fixing his watch that he broke during the accident in the first film until the very end of this one to show that he has moved on. It was his symbol of attachment of craving that love and affection of one person, just like in Wanda’s case where she wanted the love and affection of her ‘children’. She wanted what most of the other Avengers got after Infinity War which was closure or happiness to their lives and used whatever means she could get her hands on to make herself happy without being aware of the damage it was causing.

Stephen could have had easily just given in and used the Darkhold to whisk himself away to a universe where he still was a surgeon and he had Christine’s love. Stephen could have easily took America’s power with no remorse, but instead he told her to trust herself that she could control her power. Even despite having a similar internal battle that Wanda had decided to side with. No matter how much they tried to rationally reason with her, to help her see the turth of what she was doing was unreasonable and unethichal, she had made her choice to give in to her demons and delusions. You never saw the battle with Stephen, but the signs were there.

Initially when this movie was announced to be in the genre of horror, there were two things I wanted way back when. 1. Tentacles (because it isn’t Doctor Strange if you don’t have tentacles) 2. Stephen’s emotional trauma and a fight with his sanity because of the guilt he had to carry in Infinity War. 

I got both of those in spades. 

Stephen is a very emotional person. He truly does care about people and his actions. He carries his guilt if he screws up and when he royally screwed up with the incursions, he was clinging to having the acceptance of Christine to care for him just like after his accident when the entire world had abandoned him. He was afraid of being alone. Just. like. Wanda.

I have seen some people say that Michael Waldron who was a writer for Loki and this movie ruined Loki and Stephen by putting them under powerful women, but I disagree with Stephen’s case. Wanda doesn’t overshadow him, it’s just the dynamic of how they are presenting themselves and dealing with their issues is on the opposite ends of the spectrum: Wanda is more external and vocal while Stephen is more reserved about it. It took him the entire movie to speak up and say ‘yeah I’m scared of losing you and being alone’.

Stephen and Wanda’s internal battles with achieving happiness was something I related to on a personal level. Always wanting to have what you want, not being aware of what other people may think of what you’re doing or for how they feel about the situation. I’ve been through that multiple times with multiple people. It’s only until recently that I’ve been able to realize that there have been people in my life, mostly outside of the internet who have been strong-willed enough to call me out on my bullshit instead of letting me continue to make a fucking ass of myself and realize that I have more potential than I ever realized. And it’s not only them, you have to be patient enough to listen to what they have to say to realize the truth about yourself through the lens of others and be willing to seek help when a shoulder is there for you to lean on. And this instance, I cared enough about these people to seek the help I needed to be able to become a better person.

There are multiple quotes throughout the Buddhist doctrine about the moon, its reflection, and relating it to mindfulness. The one that comes to mind when I think about the film is the monkey grabbing for the moon’s reflection in the water. It is grabbing for an illusion while the real thing is above in the sky, illuminating the night. 

Basically the entire theme of Multiverse of Madness can be summed up in this trailer for another film, which is actually a documentary.

Something else that a lot of people, I guess forgot when watching this movie, is that Stephen is just a Master of the Mystic Arts and not the Sorcerer Supreme. It just dawned on me when I was watching MoistCritikal’s review on the film that Stephen being underpowered and having “unimpressive magic” and not being able to completely subdue Wanda, someone with the power of a literal demon at her disposal who could mow the sorcerers of Kamar-taj 10 times over, is actually very fitting for this film.

The original run of Doctor Strange comics from the 80′s and 90′s are named in this order. 1. Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystics Arts 2. Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme

We are just hit 1.5 in Stephen’s journey in the MCU with the introduction to the next leg of his journey. You know it, I know it, there is gonna be a third movie. Stephen’s going to become Sorcerer Supreme either because Wong dies or we finally get to see the Vishanti in their physical forms and see them give the mantle to Stephen for kicking Dormammu’s ass with the science of judo.

No, I am not making that shit up.

This is getting long already and I haven’t even talked about the other aspects of this film which are the lore and the horror.

Imma start with the latter: this is a PG-13 film, so gore is limited, but Sam Raimi definitely knew where to push the boundaries with this film and there were some moments that did actually scare me. Wanda contorting out of the gong? Black Bolt’s death? Slicing Peggy Carter in half? BREAKING PROFESSOR XAVIER’S NECK ON SCREEN?! Oh yeah, and the zombie makeup at the end was a breath of fresh air to be real instead of some CGI garbage. The cinematography in a lot of the shots was really really good or unique, especially when Wanda was dreamwalking for the first time as it switched back to her in both bodies was really good. Though scene with the slowing of time to get a jump scare in was kind of cheap.

I know I haven’t really talked about America Chavez because in all honesty, she was the just macguffin of the movie, so I really don’t have much to say except she was there to do her thing and we found out Stephen can’t speak Spanish which is hilarious. Oh, and this is what made me give this movie the praise it deserves. They gave the biggest middle finger to China in particular of showing America’s parents who are canonically lesbians on screen and there is absolutely no way you can edit it out of the film without losing some important backstory to America’s character so anyone watching this without her parents on screen will be confused as fuck as to how America got to where she was in the movie.

But now it’s on to what made this movie, for me, grin from ear to ear. All of the lore and Easter Eggs stuff within it for the Doctor Strange fans who know the ins and outs of this stupid wizard. This is not your lame ass list on the basic aspects of the movie, this is stuff that you never knew was a thing or I thought it was a nice touch to add in for continuity sake.

1. Zombie Stephen is actually Stephen from this version of the Defenders from 2011 where he slept with a college student.

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283 notes - Posted May 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Good morning

Now the question on everyone's mind this morning is

Did the English Dub make the fuzzy angel scene any more gay? Could it make it any more gay?

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325 notes - Posted August 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[goopgirlie813]

First, I want to say I appreciate the way you responded. I'm used to people just being snarky and rude, so I honestly didn't expect something as genuine as this.

So your first suggestion, "reevaluate what you think is hopeful or not." What exactly does that entail? How am I supposed to reevaluate when this is the most sensible approach I know? I think other parts of your answer may point to this already, but I am curious what exactly you had in mind with this comment.

To me, I have seen how little support third parties get in the means of actual votes, especially on a presidential level. My best understanding of why that is is our voting sytem: plurality voting. The spoiler effect means that voting for your true preference when there is a notably terrible option could contribute to a worse outcome than just settling for the meh choice.

https://youtu.be/yhO6jfHPFQU?si=zjeDyDlUpcEJjCDa

In my mind, as long as plurality voting exists, voting for a third party is to risky. Especially for someone like me who is nonbinary, married to a trans woman, has a trans sister, and has a friend group of 10+ with only 1 person who isn't queer and/or disabled. The republican option has the potential to cost me and my entire circle of loved ones our lives. Fighting to keep republicans out is fighting for our survival. Do you suggest that we sit silently, not advocating for the thing that may keep us safe? And if not, what tone should we be adopting? What is wrong with the way I speak now, presenting sources on relevant actions that influence my stance? I don't understand what you expect of us in this circumstance.

In my mind, the way to break the cycle you describe is not to just vote third party. My dad has voted third party his whole life and openly supports and encourages that. Yet nothing has come of lifetimes of actions like his.

The way out, if you ask me, is to replace plurality voting with a different voting system. I personally donate to and try to support the Equal Vote Coalition in favor of STAR voting. Becuase I think that is the path to breaking the cycle and giving the green party the opportunity to win elections. But we don't have that yet. So I'm going to advocate fiercely for what I think is best for my life and loved ones in this instance.

I fully agree with you that no lasting change will come without breaking the cycle. I do not, however, think that means there is anything wrong with participating as I do when things have not yet been changed to make my preferred path reasonable. That is something to do outside of the election context and not a necessary part of this particular conversation about the election specificaly, which is why I did not include it.

You have made may untrue assumptions about my beliefs and behavior in this response, which I do not appreciate. Such as that I only care during election time or that I am not trying to break the cycle. But I do understand where you are coming from.

And finally, thank you so much for the books suggestions. I've been listening to tons of audiobooks lately because my job lets me use headphones while I work, so this is literally the best possible time for book reccomendations 🙂. I'll certainly look into the Socialist Rifle Association, though I admit that I am still quite skeptical that a revolution is possible here (and, on some level, that I want one. I don't want to lose the people I love to war and I fear they would end up some of the first targets due to the nature of their marginalized identities).

You motherfuckers yes I hate Kamala too but when she is announced to be the Democratic candidate we are all going to shoot fireworks and go to the goddamn polls

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