#and there aren’t a bunch of nazis out to get you???

[2013trait]

I’ve seen too many “tumblr” opinions today and I only scrolled for like 5 min.

[seat-safety-switch]

A lot of people at Home Depot are getting froggy at my comparison of them to the Third Reich. This is, of course, a media fabrication. The Nazis had easy access to working tools, and lumber that was straight. What I actually called them was “a group of useless, tin-hat fascists that can’t even stock a fucking lightswitch.”

Back when I was a kid, small hardware stores were all over the place. You could get on your bicycle and ride over to the local lumber shop, and a weird old guy would tell you what stuff to buy, occasionally implying that he was your real father. Then you’d ride home, and finish your project, happy in the knowledge that at least you could control the construction of a potato cannon or low-dimensional-stability, non-permitted birdhouse.

At some point, buoyed by the renovation-crazy era of reality television, the big hardware giants started rolling in. They’d buy out or crush all of these little hardware stores. Why would you go to two of them, they’d ask, when you can get all your stuff here, in one trip, for cheaper? This would be a great thing indeed, if I didn’t have to go to three different big-box hardware stores in order to satisfy literally any weekend project shopping list.

At least with Abnormal Ed’s House of an Unusual Amount of Paracord, you’d know what you were getting into, and if you shopped at his place a lot, he’d probably start stocking the stuff you need. With Home Depot, you’re not even a blip on their immense Excel spreadsheet of Raw Data Pure Data Good Data. With an international reach, your insane hyper-local desires (limited to your house) average out to nothing against the demands of everyone else. There’s no way you can potentially influence them to start offering something unprofitable like, say, white spray paint, or hammers that aren’t made of tinfoil, without taking hostages.

What can we do about this? Other than building a time machine and going back to save small hardware stores – which would probably require buying some parts at Home Depot, which means we’d be wasting a beautiful Saturday afternoon driving all over the city just to pick up red and black wire – the only thing we can do is convince them that an even larger, angrier, hardware store is coming to kill them.

I got the idea when I had a bunch of sparrows flying into my kitchen window. You cut out some silhouettes of bigger birds and just paste them on there. They think a bunch of giant crows are hiding behind the window, and steer clear. It took a lot of time to construct an entire elaborate replica of a hardware store megaconsortium in the empty parking lot next to the Home Depot headquarters, and it was very hard to paint the Chinese ideographs for “HILARIOUS FUN DOESN’T STOCK UNPROFITABLE ITEMS RENOVATION DEPOT” while holding on to the 60th storey of a Potemkin building made entirely out of old cardboard boxes, but I managed to pull it off. You could hear the lifetime middle managers shrieking in fear of their new competitors from blocks away, and by the time I got home, the local Home Depot had finally decided to stock both light fixtures and light bulbs.

[rulerzreachf4n7]

I feel Shoo’s lost the entire point of their deal because now I keep seeing them calling you guys puritans, republicans, and nazis. It was just about proship/anti stuff at first and wanting to teach you all (in such poor taste and fashion, mind you) how it’s just fictional.

Honestly a shame that a full grown adult is so pressed over a bunch of middle schoolers. You guys have done things, but most adults would learn to tune you guys out and let you all fester in your echo chambers. I mean for fuck’s sakes. You’re kids online expressing your opinions. Most adults realize you’re still maturing and learning. And that dealing with you all is a waste of their time.

Aren’t there other things in Shoo’s life they need to worry about? Like a job, a mortgage, a relationship??

I saw them make at least five different accounts in their most recent interaction with you guys. It’s insane how dedicated they are to this pathetic ordeal.

I was lowkey scared thinking you were shoo or some random ass proshipper trying to harass me but thank you sm ily 😭🙏

One of my moots actually has an aunt who is an anti and were all trying to get the police involved cause not only has shoo harassed us but sexually harassed another one of my moots saying she should shove a piece of glass up her vagina, it's so frustrating imo

[safety-writes-noms]

After that last post, I need to know what you think about borrowers in Noir or Peter B’s universe/ first interactions 😭😭

Omg i haven’t made anything for noir in a while! I’ll do him since last post was about peter.

hm I actually haven’t read any of noir’s comics (yet :3) but I know a bunch of crazy shit happens so borrowers aren’t out of the left field for the over all universe. And I think noir would honestly appreciate finding a little tiny person than a nazi so. He’s definitely polite about it, mildly curious about their overall existence but not hostile. I’d like to imagine him spotting one crawling in through one of the many holes of his apartment in the middle of a storm, sopping wet and shivering like a leaf in the wind. he’s not doing too hot himself, nursing a bullet wound and a couple holes/tears in his beloved trench coat that he’s stitching up after a long patrol. He’s tired, a little irritated but mostly just relieved to be home. But recently, he’s noticed that some of his food has started to go missing. Little bits, like a stray biscuit or a few nibbles of cheese. he’s set out mousetraps but they’ve turned up empty.

the little creature stares back at him in apparent horror, and he blinks at them in confusion. He hadn’t been aware such small beings even existed, but oh well. He manages to calm them down with a little coaxing and tentatively, they become friends. I feel like they’d only interact a few times when the borrower has to crash somewhere and knows they’ve got a safe place with noir, or when they happen to spot each other when noir is half passed out and bleeding at the door to his apartment.

he definitely puts away all of his mouse traps just in case and they grow closer and closer to the point of which the borrower wants to help out noir. They’re quick, they’re quiet, they’re sneaky. If anything, they’re perfect for listening in for intel etc. noir himself is a little hesitant, but the borrower is just so insistent on giving back to him somehow. And it works! Noir isn’t getting as hurt since he has an idea of what’s going on and can prepare accordingly.

Surprise surprise, this eventually backfires and Noir ends up having to rescue his little friend after a near death experience with getting caught. While he would usually just stash them in one of the pockets of his overcoat, it’s just too dangerous when he’s trying to fight off 10 nazis at once. Desperate situations call for desperate solutions, so he rolls up his mask and pops them in his mouth. With a couple of gulps (and a few winces at the odd, squirming thing nestled in his core) they’re cocooned safely in his gut, leaving him free to keep on fighting.

It’s instinct, a small voice whispering in his mind that this is safe, this is okay, and he’s out of options. Is it some weird trait from the spider god that gave him his powers? Definitely. Is he going to question it right now? No, he’ll freak out about this afterwards.

This turned into a weird story/blurb so its really disorganized 😓

[musclesandhammering]

On Narrative Bias

I keep saying it annoys me how Wanda has done so many evil ass things and is never held accountable for her actions, and it never fails that someone tries to respond with “but aren’t you a loki stan? He’s done evil shit too! So you have a double standard and are a misogynist!!!!” Yeah, no. The difference is that you can clearly tell who the writers have predetermined as a hero vs a villain. You can tell who they want you to root for. Loki’s actions are given narrative consequences as harsh as possible, while Wanda’s are narratively excused and softened and sympathised. Let me show you what I mean.

* Loki commits treasons, tries to kill his brother & attempts genocide -> Loki’s father rejects him while he attempts suicide

* Loki tries to conquer earth -> Loki is sentenced to life in prison

* Loki incapacitates the king and secretly takes the throne -> Loki is threatened with a hammer to the face, we’re reminded how awful he is by all the other characters for the rest of the movie & he would’ve faced more consequences if the apocalypse hadn’t interrupted

* Loki steals the tesseract from the vault -> Loki watches his brother be tortured & then has his neck snapped

Now compare that to…

* Wanda willingly signs up to work for a nazi organisation, tries to help an evil robot murder the avengers, intentionally sets the hulk loose on a town of innocent people, & helps destroy Sokovia for a lil while -> Wanda gets a fatherly pep talk from Clint & is immediately accepted as an Avenger

* Wanda accidentally murders a bunch of people while on a mission -> Wanda is put on temporary house arrest in a giant mansion with her boyfriend

* Wanda buries her boyfriend/teammate under like 10 floors of concrete, breaks out of house arrest, & goes against a government order -> the leader of the superhero team defends her, a grown ass woman, by saying “She’s just a kid!”, she’s detained in a government prison for like a week maybe (?) during which she’s shown as a sad helpless victim to encourage sympathy from viewers, & then she gets busted out by the ex-team leader & eventually gets to run off to Scotland with her boyfriend

* Wanda holds an entire town hostage & tortures them just to fulfil her own grief-fuelled fantasy -> one of the women Wanda attacked reassures her that she’s the actual victim in all this and that the people she tortured just have no idea what she’s sacrificed for them & she escapes to an isolated location to read a forbidden demon book and make herself more powerful without anyone interfering

* Wanda goes on a serial killing spree across the multiverse, kidnaps a child, holds her hostage, tortures her, & attempts to take her powers all so she can steal another Wanda’s children because she misses her children that were never actually real in the first place -> Wanda gets some badass power sequences and #girlboss one liners, is the one that destroys the demon book, essentially saving the multiverse from future corruption, & is allowed to die a hero’s death (which we all know isn’t permanent)

See the difference?

[langfield]

This is a pretty dumb question, but you're an interesting person so I'd like to see your perspective on it. I realize people tend to give flack to people in the fandom who enjoy games made by Deck Nine, due to their games usually suffering from the same issues and because the studio itself has the Nazi and sexual harassment allegations ehich are of course problematic. I don't think people who like DE and True Colors deserve harassment, you and other people definitely don't deserve harassment. If anything you seem to have far more grace and give it to far more than other people have. I guess I'm really wondering how do you go about navigating the conversation that is Deck Nine? Do you think it's s good idea to seperate the art and the artist, or do you have an alternate interpretation of it?

hello! thank you so much for the question ( which is not at all dumb, by the way! ), because i think deck nine’s mistreatment of employees is important to address whether one likes their lis games or not. i’ll preface this by saying that i rarely ever get involved in behind the scenes production for medias i consume, mostly because it never enriches or devalues the experience for me. there are, of course, interesting things to discern from the creators ; you can easily find out why maybe the latter half of a story fell flat, or why certain characters disappeared, and a bunch of fun little details like that … but that extra knowledge is merely icing on the cake for me, rather than a part of the cake itself. while the people behind a game are important, i’ve always put more weight into my own interpretation of events, which can either align with author’s intent or not. to me, media is always what you personally make of it, and as a very queer person in an extremely straight world ( whose opinions hardly mesh with fanon takes held as gospel ), i’m used to crafting my own stories within works that aren’t exactly what was meant to be displayed. don’t get me wrong! i’m well aware of the canons i indulge in! i can easily find out what a lis game was trying to accomplish ( given how unsubtle said games are ) i just might add my own spin or flavor to it. i think everything ever made exists to be interpreted in multiple ways : so pouring over companies and the conditions behind them aren’t exactly on my to-do list.

however, i am well aware of deck nine’s mistreatment of employees. i’ve read articles discussing true color’s shitshow and i follow a former double exposure writer who was laid off, one who has no qualms complaining about it and the impossible work conditions they were under. it is all very bad and very true, and that deserves to be acknowledged. anytime i defend double exposure ( or before the storm, or true colors ) i am never defending deck nine as a company! i do not care for deck nine like that, nor am i inclined to give them grace … the sympathy i give is always towards the actual employees, especially the writers of said games, whom fans are excessively cruel towards. it absolutely disgusts me when fans claim that the writers of de deserved to be fired before christmas because they did a ‘bad job’ -- when the reality is that the writers are phenomenal people who did their best to make a game and characters worth caring about. the flaws of double exposure is entirely based on how deck nine refused to let the writers breathe! they had to change the story seven thousand times because deck nine wasn’t happy, and because deck nine was betting on making a sequel, much to the dismay of said writers.

i, personally, do not understand people who hate before the storm, true colors, and double exposure simply because deck nine made it. while i support acquiring games illegally so as to not support corrupt companies, i think you should give these games a try regardless. many of the employees on deck nine who suffered through sexual harassment and general abuse have said that it brings them joy to see people love the games they worked on, or the characters they helped create. many have said that the writing that is praised in these games were decisions marginalized people on these writing teams fought for. the people deck nine has abused do care for the games they’ve created, and care for them passionately! :

the last two screenshots are rather important to me, as they prove that the writers do indeed understand the life is strange games and franchise. many claim they don’t, but they do! and they’re the ones who have fought to keep lis as lis as possible. they love these games and tried to do them as much justice as they were allowed. this is always important to understand, in my opinion.

so, where does that leave me? i think how i approach deck nine’s games is that i approach them as i would any other, out of respect to the employees who gave these games their all despite deck nine’s toxic environment. perhaps i’m far more lenient on the mistakes inherent in their games because i know the writers couldn’t make the games how they wanted, which would’ve probably be leagues better than the ones we got. i appreciate what these people fought to include ( like the topics of racism, empathy, and queerness ) and i condemn deck nine for what they’ve done, but i don’t condemn the poor employees for doing the best they could under impossible circumstances. their works are weak and aren’t even close to perfect, yet i find extremely enjoyable content within said works anyway. these employees have explicitly stated their thanks and desire for people to enjoy these games, so that’s what i shall do! it’s less of a ‘seperate the work from the author’ and more of a ‘the author isn’t just some soulless company, the author was people, queer and poc and otherwise, so it’s fine to acknowledge the abuse they faced while still connecting to their games as they have encouraged us to do.’ deck nine sucks. and maybe their lis games suck. but i find it more important to respect the victims behind the games who have made their opinions clear rather than feign activism by hating the games these victims poured their blood, sweat, and tears into, all while claiming i’m hating these games for said victims. that’s just my opinion, though! people can always do as they like, but this is how i deal with deck nine’s toxicity while also engaging with the lis titles they’ve created.

[thisis-an-original-name]

Here is where I stand with the Global Conflict this week (no one asked lmao)

1. The top priority for me is stopping the genocide in Gaza, and, immediately after that, establishing a Palestinian state/two state solution.

2. Hamas isn’t going to peddle any kind of solution/compromise. Hamas essentially took their “We want to kill Jews” treatise and replaced “Jews” with “Zionists” but nothing has changed. If you can’t see that, you’re dangerous and probably stupid.

3. The hostages need to be freed (if they’re still alive, which let’s be realistic, they probably aren’t.) If Netanyahu actually cared about freeing the hostages, he would have done it by now, and a large number of Israelis recognize that.

4. Recognition of the hostages/ October 7th and recognition of the genocide/ deeply awful conduct of Israel can and SHOULD coexist.

5. Joe Biden is a useless little bitch. Having him as President again would still be better than four more years of Trump.

6. The Met Gala was not orchestrated by Big Zionism to distract from the invasion of Rafah and saying that it was is just blatant antisemitism. That being said, the Israeli military does frequently carry out large strikes on nights like the Met Gala and the Super Bowl when they know that the American news cycle will be focused on something else. Both things can be true. Also, the Met Gala is inherently a stupid thing to get excited about I’m sorry.

7. Student protestors do often fall into traps of antisemitism and say shit that could potentially harm Jews. What else is going to happen, when you gather a bunch of 19 year olds and tell them to yell as loud as humanly possible? That being said, I do have to believe that a vast majority of college protestors have good intentions AND, most of all, even if they don’t, censoring them and spraying pepper spray in their eyes is draconian behavior that the history books will not look kindly upon.

8. I’m so on the fence about boycotts, especially Eurovision. Because on one hand, banning Palestinian flags and keffiyeh’s from the performance is wrong. And I don’t think that Israel should be allowed to compete considering everything that the government is doing, like Russia was banned in 2021. That being said, it does make me sad that this 19 year old girl wrote a song about losing friends and family on October 7th and in response, she’s been booed and told to stay in her hotel room lest the angry mob tears her apart.

9. I do think that celebrities have some level of responsibility to use their platforms for good. That being said, this is such a complex issue that I almost don’t fault some people for not making a 250 character Twitter statement. I don’t think the dying children of Gaza care much if you block Zendaya or Olivia Rodrigo on Instagram. It also gets ridiculous when you go in the comments section of creators with like 100k followers and you see people posting Palestinian flags like yeah I’m sorry that blorbo from my shows isn’t personally flying to Gaza to punch Netanyahu in the face.

10. If you punctuate every single acknowledgement of the genocide with “but what about the hostages!!” or GOD FORBID “it’s sad that Hamas made Netanyahu do this” you have been propagandized by your local Hillel. No one made Netanyahu do this except Netanyahu. There’s no way you don’t know that by now. Wiping out Hamas: another thing that Netanyahu probably would have done by now if he genuinely wanted to.

11. Whenever I see lists of “here are the celebrities/professors/writers/guy on the street to block and throw rocks at because he’s a Mean Scary Zionist” I am reminded of the lists of synagogue goers that Nazis used to track down Jews and their families during the Holocaust. Seriously if you’re peddling lists of “Zionists” ripe for demonization you might want to ask yourself what you’re REALLY doing, and why.

12. Fun fact about me: I actually consider myself a Zionist. I do think, historically speaking, that Jews do need a safe place and a homeland to prevent us from being killed again like we seem to be every few centuries or so. I just don’t think that place has to be Israel, and I DEFINITELY don’t think Palestine should be subjugated for it to happen. But whenever I hear “Zionism = BAD” I just cringe a bit because… you keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means

[trekkele]

The idea of the Court of Owls being just a myth that a bunch of rich Schmucks decided was edgy and cool enough to base their entire personality on makes WAY too much sense.

Because it‘s 100% one of those typical nursery rhymes; 'behave yourself or [random boogeyman figure] will get you'

Don‘t even yap about them or you shall be murked. (Nevermind the rhyme itself).

I might be WAY off mark-

but between the Owls being described as an incredibly aggressive government that kills on on a whim, always watching your every step; and how you’ve talked about the comics being mostly written by jews, it even feels like it (the rhyme) could be inspired by the Nazi regime? But that might be a weird association to be on my part (I‘m not jewish).

Right?? Im just picturing a bunch of frat boys with like, their rich people beer sitting around and saying “we need a naaaaame like we’re about to run this town lol” and someone saying “we should totally be the court of owls lmao” and just. Somewhere on a mountainside Bruce gets an itch in his ear.

So the Court was originally created by Scott Snyder in 2011, and while it certainly utilizes a lot of commonly antisemitic tropes, I don’t think there was any intent in it (doesnt negate the effect, but thats that). But if you want to use a Jewish historical villain analogy, i think the Spanish Inquisition would be fun. They dont read to me as a nazi analogue, and i would avoid doing that because 1. They aren’t specifically and personally depicted as being antisemites as an end goal, which is in fact a core part of nazi ideology and 2. They are pretty much just Capitalism smooshed together with fascism and feudalism. Theres no reason to pull out nazis for every villain, if you understand what i mean.

[pettytiredandjewish]

( warning this will be a long ass rambling rant)

Hey y’all- please for the love g-d- fucking vote for this damn presidential election. Yes we don’t exactly have good candidates but out of the 2 that we have, Biden is the better option for us. I hate to say it but he is the lesser of 2 evils or however that phase goes. He’s not the best but we need to keep him in office.

And if you plan on voting on/or support that fucker (aka trump)- I have a question for you. Why? Why do you support someone who is a monster. And yes- he is one. I don’t use that term much, but in this case- I will use it because he is one. Not only is he a raging homophobic and transphobic ass hole (cuz he is), he is xenophobic to the point where he was ok with locking asylum seekers up in cages and splitting families up. He is a raging antisemitic/ islamophobic fucker (he really doesn’t care about Israel just so yall are aware. He’s a “politician” that claims he cares so he can get more votes- he’s a user who really does not give a damn about jews/Israel). Then there’s his treatment of women, which is a whole other issue- I won’t go into it with only because it makes me sick. Let’s not forget that he’s a white supremacies who fucking cheered on the neo nazies, or his treatment to those who aren’t abled…. Honestly his track record is too long but yall hopefully get the point. But why support him?

I mean Biden doesn’t have the best record per se but out of the two? Biden is not only the safer option but if he’s out- a lot of people are fucked. I remembered the 2016 presidential election (I was finishing high school) g-d I was scared (and I wasn’t the only one). I remember people going on about how he wasn’t gonna win or if he did win- nothing will happen. Well guess what yall- it was hell. Fun fact my parents was terrified and worried about my safety (since I’m trans and queer) that we were starting to make plans to leave the country. I know that if trump wins again - we all are fucked. I live in a red state. This state is trying to pass a whole bunch of fucked up anti lgbt+ laws. I know for damn sure that if trump gets elected and project 2025 starts to take effect- my states gonna jump on that right away and it will not be pretty. Not only will lgbt+ folks get fucked over, but a whole bunch of other people will too. Hell I’m about to start making a plan in case I need to get out of the country.

So please just fucking vote! And to those who don’t believe that project 2025 is real? Oh it’s fucking real all right- it’s not propaganda. Stop living in denial.

(Rant over)

[spopsalt]

https://www.tumblr.com/zhanael/737323861598748672

This person missed the point of the criticisms SPOP has been receiving completely. I haven’t seen one person complain that the world was saved with the power of friendship bc it WASN’T. It was saved by a poorly written rushed abusive romance. In fact, the critics actually wanted to see Adora’s friendships save the day instead of her awful romance with Catra since the show is called She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, despite the princesses barely getting a role. And if there HAD to be a romance, it could’ve been with Glimmer, which would’ve made more narrative sense and sent a better message to kids.

Next, I’m not sure why OP described SPOP as a show with a “pastel color palette about friendship and love and unity” as if these things detract from the bad writing, plus these themes weren’t even handled well. I have no issue with Catra being redeemed and I liked her in seasons 3 and 4. That’s not why the show is being accused of abuse apologism and this isn’t comparable to when Sugar was accused of being a nazi apologist over the SU finale. SPOP was rushed as well (I’m not sure if it got canceled like SU) but Catra’s redemption either should’ve started sooner or the romance should’ve been ditched. SU at least had a much better writing, representation, and messages for kids. It’s funny since imo SU and SPOP are not two sides of the same coin as OP claims. If OP wants shows that are ACTUALLY comparable to SU with “pastel colors, nuanced yet positive and relatable messages about love, fun for kids,” then they should watch MLP and Amphibia instead. Also I haven’t seen one SPOP critic who’s “appalled by anything that is remotely challenging to toxic masculinity” so that’s a load of BS. As for the remaining claims, those may pertain to the SU critics for all I know, but I have yet to see any SPOP critics express such sentiments or behave in such a way. The “hate blogs” for SPOP are really just critical blogs like yours that make valid points rather than “a shit ton of bad faith misinterpretations” and aren’t “tearing [the show] to shreds,” plus the only harassment I’ve seen towards teens over a kid’s show has been from SPOP fans themselves.

This post also included a bunch of nonsense in the tags which I can no longer see since OP recently deactivated their account (in fact the only reason I’m able to share a link to the post is bc someone reblogged it), but they contained more misinterpretations of the criticisms along with slander towards the critics. I’m so sick of SPOP fans continuing to have no critical thinking skills while blindly defending the show and demonizing anyone who dares criticize it. It’s pathetic.

Thanks for the ask! Yeah, the show was saved because of a rushed abusive relationship. The thing is, I wouldn't be half as mad if it wasn't directed towards kids. I don't believe it's intentional, but kids are getting the thought that the way Catra treated Adora is ok because she loved her. Basically the "He bullies you because he likes you!" thing. Instead of actually considering if they have a valid point, they just assume that the critical blogs are just angry homophobic white straight men when a lot of the blogs are queer women like me. Also, yes a pastel color palette makes up for us having to watch a rushed toxic relationship in season 5. It's like spop stans don't realize that their perfect little show can have flaws and anyone who calls them out are homophobic racist. Also from my experience, nobody said the creator romantizes abuse, they are complaining that the show itself does whether it realizes it or not. This show is being marketed to kids and kids will believe that this is ok. That's probably my biggest gripe with the show.

[forthoseinterested]

The Nazi salute

Did Elon Musk do a Nazi salute, or did it just look like one? It’s an insultingly stupid question, but one that Mr. Musk himself is betting on us asking. No, I’d say it was obviously intended to be a Nazi salute. The question is, why? Some people are saying that Elon just outed himself as a Nazi on the world stage—but wasn’t the controversy, like, a month ago, that he was fighting against all the anti-Indian racist hard-liners over that immigration program thing?

I don’t think Elon Musk is a Nazi in the normal sense, but he’s obviously gone down numerous far-right online rabbit-holes and liked a lot of what he found. He’s probably some kind of social Darwinist at least, or believes in some kind of authoritarianism justified by meritocratic rhetoric. People who are highly competent in some areas but not well-rounded thinkers often love the sound of competent people like them taking over society and just doing whatever they want and not having to listen to anyone. There’s no joke when Elon posts things about how maybe democracy should be limited to high-testosterone males. He spends a disgusting amount of time in a conspiracy-brained horseshit echo chamber of his own making on Twitter. He went from an avid Twitter user to an X power-user, posting every waking hour, and constantly endorsing extremist views from random accounts. And lying. He fucking lies a lot.

But I don’t think dictator Elon Musk would try to make America whites-only, even if he could. It’s more complicated than racism, even though they’re more than happy to exploit racism among their supporters. Then again, does it matter whether Mosley was really anti-semitic or if he just turned that way because he realized his followers were? The pogroms probably aren’t any less violent if the people at the top are also liars.

Here’s my interpretation: Elon Musk did a Nazi salute as an exercise of power. It’s a way of saying “Look at me—I can do a Nazi salute while on stage with the US president, all eyes on me. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Trump was engaging in a similar thing when he said he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters. In that case, he was also affirming that his supporters are loyal to him, even if he does terrible things, which is a goddamn confession of an acknowledgement, but in a strange way is also ‘rewarding’ the people for that loyalty. But Trump and Elon are both in the business of bragging about how much they can get away with. It’s supposed to frustrate and demoralize you. It’s supposed to make you feel like they’ve won. And it probably fascinates them. They feel like they’re on top of the world. Like they can do anything. And to a large degree they’re right, because they’ve ended up in situations where nobody can hold them accountable, and they’re surrounded by enablers and grifters and cocksuckers. And the crowd of idiots outside who supported them last week will keep supporting them next week, since nothing they do matters anymore.

This feels related to the way in which new-age dictators lie. They don’t need to actually deceive you anymore. It’s not about being tricky and sophisticated. They can just lie to your face in a way you’re obviously not going to believe, and then smile because they know there’s nothing you can do. They know you know they’re lying, and to them that’s funny. You can imagine them saying “Yeah, I’m lying. What are you gonna do about it?” And then meanwhile, because they lie every day and control a bunch of newspapers and TV stations and internet bloggers who all repeat their lies every day, people who aren’t as plugged in to the system, like your elderly relatives, will probably end up believing them, and then going out and voting for them. Then when you, the person who sees through their bullshit, confronts them, all they have to do is smile.

As various reporters noticed, far-right groups and media figures are obviously happy. And make no mistake, Elon Musk knew they would be. Do you know what I’d do if I accidentally did a gesture that anybody thought was a Nazi salute? I’d say it wasn’t. I’d take the opportunity to denounce Nazism and racism and talk about how much I detest anybody who would think I’m on their side if they thought they saw me doing a Nazi salute. Elon Musk was online hours later, and constantly since then, but he’s not going to do anything like that, because that would go against the point of doing the salute in the first place.

I’m not a great oracle of predictions, but I worry more people will end up doing Nazi salutes at Trump events in the future, because Elon Musk has legitimized it as an action. What happens if Trump does it? I don’t think he would. It’s not his style. But anything could happen. The question is, could crowds of Americans just randomly decide they’ve reclaimed the Nazi salute and that it’s no longer a bad thing? Perhaps if dear leader tells them to believe as much. A Trump endorsement, or him saying there’s nothing wrong with it, or the crowd at his rallies doing it and him not reacting negatively. Sky’s the limit.

And now the internet is awash in even more lies in response to this whole debacle: people across the internet are pretending that all politicians Nazi salute sometimes, but that we only care when Elon does it. They’re spamming pictures of any random time a Democratic Party politician stretched their hand out, and pretending that’s the same. They know it’s not. It’s another “yeah, we’re lying, what are you gonna do about it?” moment. It’s all a game to them.

And you have those people who just want to sound like they’re the middle ground of every news story, saying “come on, let’s be reasonable and not jump to conclusions”, as though interpreting the Nazi salute as a Nazi salute is some kind of unreasonable extreme. I already saw people referring to the reaction as “the Nazi salute hoax”, trying to rewrite history before the ink is even dry. Ugh.

[wirewitchviolet]

Twitter is dead. Get off it. This is an intervention.

So, back in... what was it, November? Elon Musk was forced via legal action to make good on a boisterous offer to buy Twitter. At the time, the reaction of literally everyone I know was roughly “oh damn, that’s the end of this place, that idiot’s going to kill the whole site. Where are we bailing to?” I feel like if there was a clear answer to that, maybe people would really have done it, but... a dozen people came out of the woodwork with really hastily thrown-together Twitter clones which all had weird quirks that one could be leery of, regarding security mostly, and thanks to choice paralysis, the general consensus seemed to shift to “watching this idiot try to speedrun killing this website is comedy gold, I’m going to ride this sinking ship to the bottom of the ocean, then deal with ditching it.”

The problem though is, that already happened. I guess people thought the metaphorical ocean was maybe deeper than it is, but that site really is on the bottom of it, and it really is time to move on.

Clearly, there’s some benchmarks people were waiting to see that just aren’t ever going to happen. A lot of people really expected there’d be a point where they’d just try to load up the site and get a 404 page because the servers are all permanently disconnected. Mostly people figured this would happen because Musk would realize that the site is absolutely bleeding cash like there’s no tomorrow and there’s no way it’ll stabilize again, but that’s not going to happen. He didn’t buy it to make money, he bought it to pressure bootlickers to pretend they think he’s cool, and that’s totally been working out for him. It’s costing him an absurd amount of money, but he has basically infinite money and doesn’t care.

Some people also thought this might happen because, well, he immediately fired like most of the staff and started randomly deleting huge chunks of load-bearing code and breaking contracts and not paying rent and stuff but.. yeah somehow that didn’t do the trick. A skeleton crew is mostly keeping the lights on. A lot of stuff keeps breaking temporarily but it’s held together with duct tape and someone seems to be restraining Musk from finishing the job. It’s as broken as it’s getting.

I’ve seen goalpost moving like “I’ll drop the site when it gets to the point where marginalized people are getting banned en masse and it’s just wall to wall nazi propaganda. That happened already. In November. Countless leftists, many celebrities, got taken out like day one. I got knocked off literally for the crime of being trans within the first week or so, as did a ton of other people. These are all bans that can’t be repealed. You’re hanging out in an online country club that doesn’t allow in a bunch of “undesirables” and that’s you actively propping up white supremacy if we’re really being honest about it.

I’ve seen the argument made that freelance writers and artists “need to be on twitter” in order to get commissions, and there’s a few ways to approach this one. First, do you really? Have you not reached a point in your creative career where there’s regular clients who hit you up, and don’t need to see you actively posting on Twitter to remember you exist? Do you not get any work from anywhere else? If it has traditionally been just Twitter, ARE you still getting work there? Because they don’t let you post off-site links to promote your stuff anymore, and they murdered all the discovery algorithms to instead promote far right conspiracy theorists and weird Musk sycophants to everyone instead of people whose stuff they might be interested in.

If though we live in a world where with all that being said, and all the massive bleeding of users we’ve already seen, you still want to insist that Twitter is the only place in your field one can get work offers though, then in sticking with it for that reason, you ARE kind of uh, you know, actively benefiting from your status as someone the open bigot running the place doesn’t have it out for? Again, would you join the whites-only country club? Would you apply to work at the business that refuses to hire any women or queer people? Some of us out here are literally facing homelessness because we ALSO rely entirely on commissions, and we aren’t allowed to be on that site, so, the longer that site remains the place you get commissions from, we can’t find work. Please hasten it’s fall for our sake.

Setting that aside though, there’s also the moral argument that you really should not be supporting what is quite plainly at this point a site maintained by nazis, explicitly to cater to other nazis. Like, the easy joke here is that the people who previously ran Twitter were cryptofascists, while the guy running it now is instead a crypto fascist. This of course ignoring the powers that be at Twitter also going all in on that, remember the hexagons? But seriously, with no investors to keep happy and no interest in keeping advertisers happy, Musk and the policies of the site both official and unofficial are just... full on mask-off nazi stuff now. Everyone who’s ever been kicked off the site (which traditionally had a bar of like, actually personally trying to have someone killed or personally threatening a celebrity) is back. There’s some stated transphobic policies on the books, Musk is personally posting a bunch of weird George Soros crap and hardcore propaganda like “nearly all crimes are commited by black people” and hardcore anti-vax stuff, and not only is none of this going anywhere it’s being actively pushed into everyone’s feeds constantly. You’re basically hanging out on a mirror of Gab, and your very presence there is feeding it, not financially per se (I mean, what income Twitter does have IS still advertising based, which in turn directly translates active users to dollars, but again, Musk has basically infinite money), but like, the nazis don’t just hang out on Gab is they need the attention of non-nazis and the legitimacy of hanging out in the same spaces.

So far this is me making moral arguments, but also, like... are you getting anything at all out of being on that site these days? I’m banned but private windows are a thing, and there’s still people I care about who adamantly refused to just like, be present on Discord or something so I can check in, so I do glance at people’s feeds now and then, and literally all I have seen from ANYONE in the past uh... 7 months from anyone on Twitter is just people’s live reactions to the site dying, the owner being an idiot, and having nazis shoved in their faces.

In the before time, one of the things that arguably made it worth having a presence on that site was people setting up a bunch of automated accounts to like, give weather reports and such (which you can just look up on a dedicated weather site/an app on your phone you don’t even need to open by the way) and stuff like those accounts that post a cute picture of a cat/wolf/fox/skink/whatever every hour on the hour. Those are all dead now I believe, because the idiot in charge heard someone saying that hated “bots” and thought people meant actual automated accounts, not the fascists shilling crypto and shrieking at marginalized people from their hundreds of burner accounts.

The thing though, that I’ve heard from quite a lot of people, is that not only did those feeds go poof (also anyone who hasn’t logged in in a month- dead friends, old joke accounts, etc.) but if you look for a replacement by just searching the site for say, “dog” or “cat,” because it is now a site by and for nazis, you get domestic animal snuff film gifs. The sort of thing nazis pack all their favored haunts with to deter people whose souls aren’t dead from looking at what they’re posting. I saw a lot of that stuff back in the day helping get other dedicated nazi sites offline, and that crap’s been haunting my dreams since. Why the hell are you there still?

You could jump ship and flee to some mastodon instance or whatever else is out there, or hell, you could also just... not. People had web presences before freaking Twitter. I’m just posting stuff on Tumblr here. I’m on some forums with people I’ve known for years. I’ve got Discord for live conversations (although wow, it’s really looking like it’s time to scout out the next thing there), there’s e-mail to randomly shout at people. You don’t need a doom scroll site replacement, honest.

And like, I get it. You don’t want to just be trickling out one by one. You want some oomphf, some momentum. So here’s the plan, share this around: You post whatever “here’s where to find me” stuff you need to now-ish. Then you wait... about 3 weeks. Then the date is going to be 6/9. You wait for the date to roll over, you make a single post where you just say “nice” and then you never touch the site again.

Oh and meanwhile, hey, again, I really do live off commissions, and I’ve had a hard time getting new ones since... well some former clients decided to not work with trans women anymore apparently, really, so I kinda need to beg for money to live, if you want to maybe toss some my way? Also there’s a new Zelda game out and that weird Bayonetta prequel thing, and I’m literally putting every single cent I can get my hands on towards paying my rent and utilities (the government’s covering groceries). I can’t even afford one of those streaming services. So uh, anyone feel like maybe doing the wishlist thing?

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Next episode of Creature Commandos is gonna be the deciding factor on my opinion of the show. So far, I have mixed feelings.

The first episode, which is the “getting the gang together” part of the story, did not really endear me to the characters right away like Gunn’s previous works did. Dr. Phosphorous is the only character who makes a huge impression, seeing as he’s the Captain Boomerang-esque lovable asshole and he’s played by Alan Tudyk (who’s finally in a good time again after being repeatedly wasted by Disney), and while the other creatures aren’t BAD they didn’t immediately grab my attention like Rocket, Peacemaker, or Star-Lord.

Episode 2 is a huge mixed bag. On the plus side, we have David Harbour hamming it up as the violent turbo simp take on Frankenstein; he is having an absolute blast playing the stitched-together manchild. The backstory for the Bride is very good too, though it does lead to grooming/incest/necrophilia being portrayed a bit more romantically than you’d expect.

While I’m not going to get on a moral soapbox here—it’s a cartoonishly violent show about monsters, and the Bride is a gothic horror creature, so this isn’t outside the norm—I think this kinda highlights how the women in the show are portrayed. The Bride’s backstory is as described above, the team’s fish lady (who as of episode four is the most forgettable character) has a lot of scenes of her nude in tubs, and the princess the team has been sent to protect is super horny and throws herself at Frank Grillo’s Flag and is threatened with rape in the next episode by Circe’s army of incels. Gunn is normally great at writing women (Gamora, Nebula, Ratcatcher, Waller) so this comes off as really bizarre. My guess is due to the subject matter he decided to dabble in his past Troma sensibilities, but it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Episode 3 is where things take a turn for the better. We get the backstory of G.I. Robot, the team’s Nazi-hating tin man, and we get numerous awesome scenes of him blasting the Third Reich apart as well as some tragic depth to him. A lot of people take umbrage with how Circe is defeated here, but that’s just how comic book media works. Sometimes a tough villain gets jobbed for the sake of the story.

Episode 4 is, so far, the best episode. We have Flag and Frankenstein becoming “best buddies” with some of the funniest dialogue of the show, some serious raising of the stakes, and TWO gorilla-themed cameos! But best of all, Weasel of all characters gets a truly heartbreaking backstory. You heard me: The crazy, violent, alleged child killer who was most notable for nearly drowning at the start of The Suicide Squad, gets a genuinely sad background that adds a bit of depth to him. It made me tear up a bit.

I can’t say that this show has won me over like Gunn’s previous superhero work, which is sad because between the awesome animation and the subject matter I was sure this would be a slam dunk for me. Maybe it’s just the fact this is the 5th time James Gunn has made a “ragtag bunch of misfits come together to go on a mission and become a found family” story; we get it, James, you know how to do this, but this is getting to the point where you’re Sheen showing off Ultra Lord for the seventh time. I’d like to see you step out of your comfort zone a bit and do something new (which thankfully is what Superman is looking to be). Of course, the finale could really win me over depending on how it’s executed, so I’m holding off on a full verdict. As it stands, this is a solid but somewhat scattershot start to the new DC universe.

[sidewayspeace444]

I must say that it's very telling how The Irksome Queen have go out of their way to not call out Albert and Jasmine's constant thirst for attention and baiting fans. They keep reiterating that it's CE's fans that continue to give them attention, deliberately being obtuse and skipping over the point. This does NOT change the fact that two full-grown adults are constantly spending their days intentionally trying to upset the fan base. The fan base that made Albert's so-called "fiancé" rich and famous.

Then the fans call them out, every time and somehow the fans become the bad guys for not wanting to be messed with nor ised as pawns. They scared away such a large portion of his fan base with all of their hate and antics like the true energy hounds that they are. Now, they have the AUDACITY to taunt the loyal ones who are still choosing to stick around despite all of this nonsense. Hmmmm...almost like they're destroying him on purpose. ???

What's the matter, Albert? We all know that you read up on all of the MANY(and I do mean many) tarot readings between tumblr and YouTube with almost all of the readers letting it be known that he doesn't want you. I guess now, knowing his secret thoughts you're out for revenge. You were never gonna be chosen and readers have hammered that in, over and over. I guess you figured that if he didn't want you you'd go out with a bang, huh? Sweet revenge, I suppose? Sneakily destroy him while you're still around for the PR shit show? Leave a mess before you go run off to hop on the next wealthy d*** that you hope will bring you attention? I'm sure you'll bring bad luck and energy to the new guy as well. Little girl is truly cursed. The Gods and spirits are truly never in her favor. It shows in all that she does. Notice everything she touches turns to ash? Not sure how one can be so dead set on their own demise. It's simple. You continue to put out bad energy and the universe will put that right back on you! Isn't she soooooooooo spiritual? She should belief in this stuff, right? She should believe in Karma.

Any other woman with dignity and self-respect would have just took the "L" and moved on ages ago. She didn't get the attention she so desperately seeks. She didn't get groundbreaking roles. Chris doesn't want her. The fans never gave her the praise she was hoping for. Why not just end the facade and move on with your life? How much longer are the Portu-Potty crew planning to troll and be sly, childish and petty on the internet? Aren't they tired? We sure as hell are! It's been almost TWO YEARS. The plan didn't work. Nothing's going to change at this point. The fans have already seen what they needed to see about them. LET IT GO! MOVE ON! GO AWAY! LIKE, FAR,FAR AWAY!

Imagine if the two of them put as much effort into their craft as they did in a bunch of strangers on the internet who they swear they're better than? They might actually be booked and busy and receiving the abundance that hard work gives you. Such losers! All of this carrying on just for it to end(and it will end. This, we all know. Including her.) with them having gained nothing. Little girl has been losing weight, losing pigmentation in her skin, losing hair, rapidly aging and isn't even happy! But at least after all the stress and strain this trainwreck has put on her mental and physical form(and Chris's too) these two years,at least she and her actual soulmate, Jasmine have spent that whole time going out of their way to piss the fandom off. That's all they can say once it's finally over. They've only proved the fandom had justifiable reasons to dislike their energy from the jump. They proved the fandom right! But according to Irksome, the mEaN oLd fAnS are the problem. Just the fans, not the Nazis. Shit's embarrassing.

👌👀

Yeah I never understood why so many certain fans aren’t speaking up about the trolling. Instead, they’re adding to it with the most bizarre scenarios. Now lately it’s because his stylist is in MA, where her husband is originally from, and her in laws live. It’s almost like they get a thrill out of nonsense themselves so they want to rile up the fan base as well.

[ewingstan]

Fuck. I’d just gotten back on a good sleep schedule, too. Wildbow I can’t keep doing this.

Read through to Rain laying out his deal to the group. Trying to picture what it would be like to find out a close friend was regularly spending his time in Elohim city. Even after the two interludes of seeing him there, I don’t think I was really processing the weight of it until I read the group’s reaction. Christ.

All the new info we get on the Fallen here is kind of interesting in the context of it being new info—that it was an aspect that wasn’t focused on in Worm. You could backfill analyses of what Taylor does and doesn’t focus on when describing groups, how she focuses more on the odd stuff and the violence than on the ideology, and how that reflects some of her political assumptions and holes in her framework. One could object to this line of thought by pointing out how it’s much more likely that their Christian Nationalism-esque details weren’t discussed in Worm because wildbow only came up with that stuff later. If so, I find it interesting to compare how The Fallen in Ward are written compared to E88 in Worm.

The Fallen feel a lot more realistic. Less like a bunch of cartoon mooks who are racist because they are da bad guys. Maybe it was just because it was written from Taylor’s perspective, or because a lot of the narrative focus was on Hookwolf, but a lot of E88 felt like they were written as bloodthirsty killers first and bigots with a specific genocidal agenda second. If you wanted to trace Wildbow “advancing” politically in anything between Worm and Ward, I think you could point to him actually putting focus on the horrible ideologies of certain groups. I don’t know, maybe I’m putting things in the text that aren’t there, or maybe it’s just the results of different types of stories and narrators, but the experience of reading Worm E88 could sometimes sound like someone talking about how they hate Nazis because they’re a red-blooded American and a patriot who would never support historic national enemies—with very little in the way of principled ideological disagreement. And for its many faults (I’ll get to the 9% thing tomorrow), I don’t get the same sense in how Ward writes about the Fallen.

[musclesandhammering]

On Mcu!Wanda: I don’t have to argue cause I already know what her stans are gonna say 🙄

🔺She never hurt anyone on purpose!

Ignoring how she was literally a serial killer in MoM, she willingly agreed to work with a nazi organisation, she mind-r*ped all the Avengers in AoU, she was fine with helping Ultron murder the Avengers and only changed her mind when she realised he was gonna murder ALL humans (including her), she intentionally unleashed the Hulk on a town full of innocent people, she beat the shit out of Vision just so she could get out of house arrest for a legitimate crime she committed, she attacked Team Tony also to keep from going back to her temporary time-out in a giant comfy mansion, she held an entire town hostage and then tortured them when they begged to be let go, she attacked the people who were trying to help those hostages, and then she trapped another witch in an eternal sitcom just cause she was trying to get her to free said hostages. And that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head.

🔺Well, look what she’s been through! She’s lost more than anyone!

Literally every other hero in the mcu has lost someone. Most of them have lost more than her, in fact. Rocket lost his entire found family, Steve lost his entire life in the 40s (including his girlfriend, friends, teammates), Drax lost his whole family, Quill lost his mom and his life on earth, Gamora and Nebula lost their families and their worlds and their autonomy, Thor lost his entire realm, his entire family, his friends, his shield mates, and his eye……. And none of them went torturing homicidal psycho like she did.

🔺The writers for MoM butchered her character- she was never that selfish before. So the stuff she did in this movie shouldn’t be considered canon.

Ok, bestie. I hate Mike Waldron too. But here’s the thing.. all the way back in AoU she was indirectly mass murdering innocent people just to satisfy her thirst for revenge. In Civil War, when everyone else was fighting for their moral convictions, she was fighting to avoid an extremely lenient punishment for a crime she did, in fact, commit. In WV, she held an entire innocent town hostage- and I know she didn’t so it on purpose, but when she found out what was going on, she didn’t stop. She kept holding them hostage, tortured them, and said they should be grateful. And then she broke down because eVerYOne’S mAD at MeEeE!! She read the Darkhold even though she knew it was a shit idea. In MoM, she went on a multiversal murder spree, tortured a child, ruined an alt version of herself’s life, and was gonna steal the child’s powers to have for herself. Selfishness is a CORE aspect of her personality.

🔺Well, it was just the Darkhold corrupting her! She was basically possessed! You can’t hold her actions in MoM against her!

I can and I will! You know why? Cause she knew damn well the Darkhold would corrupt her if she read it, and she did it anyway. Like if you murder someone when you’re drunk, it’s true that that’s not how you usually are. But if you’re aware that you go into homicidal rages when you drink, and you choose to get hammered anyway, and then you kill a couple people…… 🤷‍♀️.

🔺All that aside, she had some feminist moments in MoM, we staaaaan a queen!

Where? I saw a few pseudo-feminist moments (you know, the ones the mcu specialises in). If you’re talking about her “You break the rules and become a hero, I do it and become an enemy. That doesn’t seem fair.” line, she’s not calling out the patriarchy there. She’s well into being corrupted by the book and that line is to show that her perception of reality has already been altered. Because, you know…. Stephen broke the rules to help a kid and then he tried to fix it. She broke the rules to get back the kids she never really had in the first place, and killed a bunch of people to do it. If you’re talking about the “Those kids aren’t real, you made them out of magic. Isn’t that what all mothers do?” line, then that’s also not an empowering pro-motherhood quote. That’s her being delusional again because she doesn’t realise that her kids weren’t real and she wasn’t being a real mother to them and real motherhood requires a lot MORE than magic.

🔺Character aside, she’s a complete badass! She can do literally anything with her chaos magic! She was beating Thanos by herself! She took out all of Kamar-Taj and The Illuminati alone! She was made to rule the multiverse!

*sigh* sure ok. Not really but whatever. Most of what she did in MoM was stuff she got from the Darkhold, and Doctor Strange repeated several of the more impressive spells she did later in the same movie. And even though, pre-Darkhold, she’s definitely pretty powerful, it annoys the hell out of me how a bunch of magic-y movies (The Craft, hello???) have this trope where some newbie stereotypically pretty young white girl just suddenly has powers that are strong af and dominates all the other sorcerers who have been practicing for literal decades/centuries. It’s such lazy writing and the “the attractive boring mainstream character will always triumph over the othered characters no matter how undeserving they are” through-line is not subtle at all. Ever notice how Ms Pumpkin Spice Latte seems to cause enormous suffering for black and brown people specifically? No? Just me? Mm.

🔺But you at least like her as a villain, right?

No. Well, that’s a little unfair. If she had been narratively portrayed as a villain (including all of the consequences that come with it) ever since she was introduced in AoU, then yeah I probably would. Cause she’s been doing villainous shit since way back then. But the thing is, she’s been getting infantilised and excused and Pretty-White-Girl’ed into oblivion for like 7 years now, to the point where it’s too little too late. I don’t care if they’re finally admitting she’s Not So Innocent… at this point, I have no sympathy and no interest whatsoever… just get rid of the character.

🔺You like Loki but not Wanda? Isn’t that hypocritical?

Nope cause the writers and the other characters and even Loki himself remind us every 3 and a half seconds that he’s evil despicable terrible awful no good very bad… Wanda gets the opposite treatment. Loki’s definitely a villain, but everybody in-universe knows that and the writers know it and he knows it, and he’s faced consequences for it, and there’s a delightful honesty in his gleeful bad guy approach.

🔺Well at least admit that Elizabeth Olsen is perfect in the role.

Elizabeth Olsen’s annoying and I would’ve much rather had a romani actress play her, thanks. That’s not to say Elizabeth is a bad person, though. I’m sure she’s a sweetheart (idk, I don’t follow her).