#anti communities are fucking TERRIFYING to be in. i know from experience. you should not have to be walking on eggshells around 'friends'

[circular-bircular]

hey uhh sorry if it's not appropriate I just want to give my two cents on syscourse. and I'm too scared to do it on my own blog + you seem really cool

also right and wrong used very very broadly it's a ramble and I'm no judge on morality by any means

so my (very lukewarm actually) take is that people all across syscourse are scared to be wrong, as if it's a bad thing to be "wrong" or change one's mind. but! I can understand where they come from, especially in the case of anti endos.

anti endos are more often than not severely traumatised, and also speaking from experience, being "wrong" is dangerous, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or even the right thing but that an abuser doesn't like so it's still the wrong thing, is dangerous.

you get traumatised for it, abused, or lose a sense of safety, in support networks or emotional safety or physical safety. it's really scary to be wrong, and it's also scary to be right, you get abused either way. but often times if you're right in your own way you can maintain some sort of community with people who are also like you, while if you're wrong you lose it.

and I've been thinking for a while that people who are severely traumatised get more often into anti endos circles because they want to keep their sense of security and the last speckle of identity, and that they're afraid they will lose their circles and support networks that come with those if they dare step out of line, should they change their minds later on.

the same happens in a lot of pro endo circles, especially in the spaces where the are traumatised pro endos, it's just that I've seen it more as a reoccurrence in anti endo spaces, because they're usually made of people who have been severely abused. I also think that a lot of endos or pro endos who got big on the Internet are really looking for attention (not a bad thing by itself! just very poor execution) or at worst trolling, and don't want to change their mind because their thoughts are not what they're actually putting out on the Internet.

not sure where I want to go with this exactly? I just wish people were kinder both with themselves and each other 🧍🏼

Honestly, I can agree with this. I'm gonna add some extraneous thoughts that I had while reading, if you don't mind.

Most anti-endos on tumblr are DID systems, meaning they're traumatized.

Many pro-endos I see in syscourse here are also traumatized.

When I first joined system spaces, I was told a lot of things were wrong that were actually right. This is what led to me feeling unsafe in pro-endo spaces originally, and why I originally left those spaces. (Note: these were things like "You MUST have introjects, you have autism" being said to me).

I know I absolutely was terrified of being wrong when I was first in the pro-endo community, but the problem persists in anti-endo spaces, and even when unlabeled, it's there. That fear is everywhere, not determined solely by a syscourse "group."

That fear has gone away more now that I've (sadly) gotten used to harassment. When I post, I just automatically assume that I am going to be harassed for anything I say, or at bare minimum, get into a screaming match. Getting told repeatedly by pro-endo systems that the harassment I was facing was my fault because I was medicalizing my own disorder and talking about it online really fucked me up, to the point that baby's first anon hate doesn't have as much of an effect anymore (so... thanks? I guess?)

Don't know necessarily if I had a point with all of this. But there you go!

[adhbabey]

hope its ok im responding to ur post abt paych critical! it is so relatable! there are lots of things i appreciate abt the psych critical/antipsych community & movement but i also like. dont understand why in the world so many ppl are like overwhelmingly against therapy. obv it doesnt work for everyone! ik its not available or accessible for everyone! but its such a vast & varied field and such an adaptable thing that like. i don’t think i’ll ever get why ppl direct their anger towards those of us who *do* benefit from therapy or find it a useful tool for recovery. yknow. what good does infighting do!!! who does that serve!! this has turned into shouting into the void a little bit, sorry about that

Yeah it's fine. Honestly I'm pretty anti psych about a lot of things, like the fact that people are abused or mistreated in medical situations and that people are forced to take medication, have their rights stripped away, etc.

And I, too, hate that people call their partners by words taken from disorders. Like, you shouldn't call people "narcissistic" or "psychotic" as an insult. Pathologicizing abusers is just really fucking harmful and stupid. The whole thing is misunderstanding why those words exist in the first place and just scapegoating mentally ill people.

But this doesn't mean words like dissociation, triggers, panic attack, depression, manipulation, gaslighting, etc. don't have their purpose and it doesn't mean everyone is misusing them. And it is just stupid to assume everyone is, and that's the problem with some people who are anti-psych.

Some people view professional help and medical terms and diagnoses as bad, and it just makes them sound like the people they disagree with. I'm psych critical, not against helpful tools and professional treatment. They should be used with consent and with autonomy. Removing and gatekeeping information and resources is what's bad.

I'm extremely pro-self diagnosis. Partly because I am psych critical and partly because I think we have the intelligence to figure things out for ourselves. That crazy people aren't too crazy to know that they are "crazy". That we have the ability to recognize the fact that something is wrong.

Self diagnosing people aren't stupid for taking medical knowledge and applying it to themselves, they're not pathologicizing all human experiences, and I think that people who argue that are dumb.

So like. There is a middle ground that people aren't noticing, because they lean too heavily to one side. I can't function without medication, but I'm terrified of being institutionalized and my family is somewhat ableist, so I struggle to find an option to get help. I think most people on the internet have found themselves in similar situations.

So like, the whole "stop pathologizing human experience" and that people say "the tiktokification of the internet is bad", like bitch, we all loved Vine. The whole thing is just missing the understanding that people are striving for accessibility and education, not whoever the fuck that takes it too far.

So yeah, thanks for sending an ask to let me talk about this more. Therapy does not solve all your problems, especially if your therapist is not the right one. But it's something people should still try and seek. Maybe it's helpful, maybe it's not.

But the fact of the matter is, is that people are literally just using terms to understand their experiences. Sometimes they'll take it too far, but there is a middle ground. There will always be normal and reasonable opinions within it, we should listen.

[area51-escapee]

As much as I am frustrated with people misrepresenting the democrats views and beliefs on certain things I am also frustrated with the way that people talk about how things will be if Trump wins the election. It’s not that I think nothing bad will happen at all, it’s that I’m seeing people basically state as fact that if that happens, it’s the end, it’s game over, there is no hope, and that is also. Not true. And combining that with how many times I’ve seen people, especially teenagers express that they will very likely kill themselves if he wins the election, it feels irresponsible for people to present this as if it is just “game over”.

I was 16 when Trump was actually elected as president. Leading up to that, I was being bombarded with messaging every time I got online about how if that happened, conversion therapy would be mandatory, it would become illegal to ever transition, my family members could potentially be deported, my friends and I would be killed for being queer and Trump was going to be a dictator for the rest of his life. Do you understand how fucking terrifying that is? To be 16, in a red state, too young to vote, no connections to offline queer communities, being told that me, my friends, my family, were all in danger of certain death if this man won, and the only way to stop any of that from happening was to vote? Trying to deal with mental illness, undiagnosed neurodivergence, 11th grade, AND all of that? It was horrible, it was a terrible thing to experience, and now another wave of teenagers are having to experience that and I feel awful for them because you should not have to worry about those things at that age.

Trump won that election, and I was fucking terrified. And none of that stuff actually. Happened. The harshest anti trans bills wouldn’t start coming out until Biden was president, same with roe v wade being overturned. Trump was a terrible president, as expected, and I sure as hell don’t want him back in office again, but also, please understand that in the event that does happen, it is not the end. The fight doesn’t end with the election, there’s still work to do, and there are still people out there trying to help, there are activist groups and organizations working to preserve and further our rights regardless of who’s president, to help people in unsafe states, there are transgender lawmakers involved in government fighting for us, we don’t have to just. Give up. And I feel like presenting the situation as if it’s “win the election or lay down and die” is horrible and absolutely irresponsible and contributing to this feeling people are suffering with that death is the only way out if he gets elected again, and that’s not the case. We shouldn’t be encouraging that kind of messaging, I know what it feels like to feel like it’s a life or death situation and that did fuck all to help me then, what would’ve helped a lot more was hope, was sharing of resources and even just reminders that as long as there are still people fighting for us, it’s not over yet.

[slendermankin]

Had another creepypasta nostalgia moment yesterday..... highkey wanna try to like. Actually rejoin the fandom but. Ough. Its dead on twitter which is were ive been recently and here its.... eough. Great artists, sweet ppl, but just. So many ppl obsessed with online posturing and The Disk Horse

[sugarfreesyscourse]

Syscourse makes everybody fucking Stupid, a rant , long post :)

As I already said, this is a rant so if anything is worded poorly, blame the fact I'm (rightfully) so sick of the system community.

Genuinely, how is a community made for supposedly 'supporting' one another somehow the most toxic cesspool I've seen in my whole life? A place where people constantly do awful things to each other, doxx each other, abuse and traumatise each other, misinform and indoctrinate each other, all because it's just oh-so-easy for ill-intended individuals or people who don't "realise" how awful they're being to do all that behind a screen. That's not even touching on the rampant ableism and racism within the community. That's another can of worms.

Why do so many of us get so mad about somebody disliking terminology on a personal level, so they don't use it? Same for using specific pieces of terminology? Why can't people get it through their heads that their experience isn't universal. the point that this community should really be focussed on, considering we're all from different walks of life, with different traumas, etc?

So many discussions within the community are just redundant or fuelled by assumption. People aren't going to perfectly fit into your puzzle-piece opinions, not everyone is going to want to use the same words to describe their experience. Does this make them 'invalid' or 'wrong'? Absolutely not. Should it be a red flag? No. There's a constant disregard for nuance and personal comfort. It feels like all the time everyone is trying to press one anothers buttons or cross boundaries when it doesn't fucking matter. What happened to wanting to help each other and spread info? Correcting misinfo? Why are people getting jumped for their personal preferences and expressing them??

There is so much systems are terrified to disclose and it's because this community is so abhorrently intolerant.

And it's ironic, because if you saw these people you're arguing with in person, you'd have no idea. None of these issues matter to the 'regular' person- in fact they'd have no idea what you're talking about. That's why we should just focus on info rather than fighting each other.

Because if we're so sick of people using tumblr as a resource, why are we pumping it full of stupid garbage fighting each other? For just assuming what people think??

It's so far beyond the discourse labels at this point, beyond fakeclaiming. It doesn't matter if you're 'pro-endo' or 'anti-endo' or 'endo neutral' or whatever, nobody is immune to the potential harrassment, and it's just so easy to kick off here. People can't say if they're polyfrag, or if they're a system of less than 10, or if they have a partner system, or if they're dating a singlet, because they might get mauled for not fitting the cookie cutter experience people have fabricated.

It doesn't matter what your opinions are at base level because they surely have nuance. Can we stop going for each others throats over base level statements and you know, use human decency? Discuss things? Try to calmly communicate our own opinions or points of view?

Your opinion being 'right' doesn't make you a good person.

[identityunfounded]

Something I think about a lot is the gaslighting and dismissal from medical professionals.

And I don’t want to get too into it because I don’t have the spoons but like, I can see where anti-vaxxers and essential oil peddlers are coming from.

As someone who has been shoved aside by the medical community my entire life and still have no diagnoses to explain anything about me (because they refuse to do any testing for anything and INSIST that I should just try ONE MORE medication despite me having a very poor reaction to literally every single one that I’ve tried) I completely empathize with the rampant distrust.

I have libido problems. I asked to have my testosterone checked just so I could mark it off the list since I also suffer from fatigue. My doctor did the test and when we got the results back she looked me in the eye and said “we’ll we don’t know what a normal range is for a woman so the results don’t really mean anything”. Then why do the test? Why not say that outright?

She was lying. There is a normal range. It’s wide, but we know it. Just say it was normal.

Don’t forget that many complications from childbirth come from the way hospitals make you have a baby. Things are getting better, but at the end of the day they can and will do whatever they want with or without your consent because it’s “medically necessary” and they will tell you what position you can sit or stand or lay in and whether or not you can have food or water. Sure, it’s nice to have them for an emergency, but many traumatic births are because of the way things are done rather than in spite of.

Obviously this effects women more often, but men aren’t immune either.

And this is honestly just all to say I get it. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. I understand why they’re scared of doctors and 5G and vaccines and pills, because I’m scared of some of that stuff too. And because they lie to us. They lie through their teeth either by omission or ignorance.

How are we supposed to trust them? When someone says they would rather take essential oils than go in for chemo I want to roll my eyes but at the same time I can see why. It’s not medicine, it literally is poison. You’re killing your self and just hoping the chemo kills the cancer faster. That’s fucking terrifying.

How are we, as a society, supposed to move forward in science and how are we supposed to educate people when professionals keep lying and gaslighting? Sometimes it’s hard to look people in the eye and say “you should trust doctors” when my own, personal, experience tells me complete opposite.

[jyndor]

I’m rewatching the Puppetmaster for ~research~ and ugh.This is such a good episode but I cannot stand the treatment of Hama and also Katara’s special bending ability. And I’m gonna talk about it because I can’t help myself. But I also want to offer a solution maybe something that the writers could have done instead. Granted I’m a white US American so while I am about to talk about imperialism, anti-indigenous racism and racialized misogyny, I am coming from a position of privilege here and ymmv. It’s important that we as fans (especially white fans) acknowledge the things that our favorite stories can do better so that we can make our fandoms safer for everyone.

And btw fans of color have been talking about this so I definitely am going to be quoting some phenomenal bits of critique I have read on here. Also you should follow @shewhotellsstories and @visibilityofcolor for anti-racist fandom commentary.

I am also going to talk about grooming, so just be aware if that is a trigger for you.

I. Hama as a Campfire Horror Story Monster

The episode starts out with the Gaang camping in a creepy forest telling ghost stories to each other. Set to spooky music, Katara tells a story about something that happened to Kya, a friend named Nini (likely) dying in a snowstorm and then haunting her family’s home as a ghost. Immediately after, Toph hears people screaming under the ground - and then Hama finds them and invites them to her inn.

Every so often, Hama says something spooky with the spooky music playing. Katara immediately takes to Hama, but the others (especially Sokka) find her pretty unnerving. Katara says she reminds her of Gran Gran before Sokka starts snooping around and finds a bunch of puppets and a comb from the Southern Water Tribe. It’s the standard horror movie fakeout.

Every so often we get an artfully placed hint about Hama’s agenda - pulling water out of thin air, showing Katara that “plants - and all living things” are made of water. And oh yeah, she makes herself ice claws. Cool skill, but in the context of the episode, a little more unnerving.

The “moon monster” that Old Man Ding mentions, the alleged Moon spirit, turns out to be Hama (of course) and the tension builds to a peak as the Gaang rush to save Katara from the “dark puppetmaster” that has imprisoned the villagers.

Meanwhile Hama and Katara stand under the full moon washed in spooky cool lighting with an ominous breeze around them. You see Hama practically transform into a monster in a way sort of reminiscent to a werewolf - her fingers become claw-like, her veins pop out. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it’s a coincidence that as she reveals her true agenda, she becomes less human in appearance. Which... okay I’ll get to that later.

While I can’t say that Katara fits the Final Girl trope very well, I do think it’s interesting to note that horror movies often do feature women as heroes who defeat the monster/killer/whatever and usually the Final Girl is used to allow audiences to experience the full horror of the villain, which absolutely is how Katara is used here. Yes, her friends come to help, but she saves everyone in the end (my queen).

So here’s why that’s bullshit.

Framing Hama as a horror story monster make sense when you don’t think about the Implications of framing the indigenous woman POW living surrounded by people who have benefited from Fire Nation imperialism. It does - it’s a common trope: the reclusive witch who first seems kindly to some lost/wandering children before revealing her true intention - to use them for her own purposes. Yeah, I know they’re playing on Hansel and Gretel. But yeah, I’m gonna call bullshit on that too - drawing on a c*nnabalistic witch for inspiration when you’re writing an indigenous woman character is probably not the way to go.

II. Hama the Puppetmaster* and Groomer

A puppet master is obviously a puppeteer, and Hama has puppets (creepy though they may be). But in terms of the underlying meaning, she’s a chessmaster, an Emperor Palpatine/Dick Cheney kind of master manipulator who works mostly through other people. What most people would consider a psychopath (in layman’s terms). When her friendly mask falls, she is terrifying.

She is cold, calculating, manipulative as fuck - she isolates Katara almost immediately. Hama uses Katara’s desire to connect with her culture to groom her to become a weapon. It’s actually such a good example of grooming that it has to be purposeful:

Targeting a victim - Hama hears that Katara and Sokka are from the SWT. She also hears Katara tell a story about Kya. To Hama, a waterbender from her own culture is a hell of a target.

Gaining trust - Hama reaches out to Katara in particular, is especially kind to her, gives her individual attention that the others don’t get. She prepares a SWT feast for them and tells the Gaang about her heritage when they go snooping.

Filling a need - so once Hama has given Katara reason to trust her about waterbending, she promises Katara to pass on SWT waterbending heritage that only Hama knows. She fills a unique need of Katara’s.

Isolation - From then on out, we don’t see Katara with the rest of the Gaang until the end of the episode. Hama seems like a normal teacher but she does start to drop little hints, pushing Katara very gently to see how she will react to her real agenda and desensitizing Katara to what would otherwise seem unacceptable coming from someone else who hasn’t established that unique trust. “You’ve got to keep an open mind, Katara.”

So this would be the point at which Hama would make sexual contact but this is metaphorical so that obviously doesn’t happen. What does happen is Hama pushes Katara’s limits. She makes her pretty uncomfortable with the idea of killing the fire lilies for water, but when Hama appeals to their shared history of marginalization she gets over it.

Maintaining control: Hama makes her final move, which is obviously bloodbending, and reveals her true agenda - and when Katara refuses to manipulative living beings’ blood, Hama violates her bodily agency. And not only this, but she pushes Katara into bloodbending when she victimizes the Gaang, fully realizing her control. 

Hama sees it as a victory, and telling Katara breaks down at the end in one of the most emotional scenes in the show. She feels like so many of us have felt at some point: violated, betrayed by someone we trusted. And then they never really deal with that.

I actually think that’s the point of The Puppetmaster, especially given ATLA being a show for children. I think it’s supposed to be a metaphor for csa.

And... okay.

Undoubtedly it is important to send these messages to kids. And yes, people usually are victimized by those closest to them, by those in their own communities. But not indigenous women. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but according to the National Congress of American Indians, Native American women  and girls are more likely to be sexually assaulted by non-NA men. 57% of cases are perpetrated by white men. Not the people in their communities.

Choosing to tell this story with an indigenous woman POW (who very likely would have been victimized herself lbr) is a choice that I find really aggravating. When writers tell stories with a Point, it is incredibly important for those writers to understand the implications of what they are saying about the characters who they are using to make that point.

Like I’m not saying don’t make that point, or don’t use Katara (who would in real life be at a higher risk of sexual violence than the others) to make it, but why make the perpetrator someone who is statistically unlikely to be Katara’s abuser? I’m not sure I have a good answer to that question. My guess is, like with making Hama animalistic and about as unsympathetic as it gets, the writers just had blinders on about the cultural implications of what they were saying.

Not even considering the whole victimizing-the-“innocents”-of-the-Fire-Nation-town plot, Hama’s not a good person. This is probably because she was driven mad by the need for revenge, which, eurgh okay, but still it’s very apparent that she is not interested in winning over Katara’s support directly or honestly.

* also the antisemitic history of this trope hmm.

III. Hama and The Victims of Genocide Victimizing Oppressors #NotAllFireNation

Okay. So this is the part that I think annoys me the most because it’s so bad. Like, imagine for a minute that you’re a white guy and you’re gonna tell a story about a victim of genocide who is completely divorced from her culture and homeland, and furthermore is an escaped prisoner of war who has radicalized in prison - okay it just hit me, I know what they MIGHT have been going for, like maybe some kind of anti-Gitmo statement? But that didn’t happen. People who were stolen away from Iraq and imprisoned illegally in Guantanamo Bay, and who were released after being detained illegally, haven’t really shown any real radicalization. They’re pissed at the US for victimizing them, but like that seems pretty fair considering so many of them did nothing wrong.

That’s been the US government’s excuse for not releasing innocent people who were detained illegally. The idea that prisoners of war radicalized in Gitmo so they can’t be released because they’ll attack the US is propaganda. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, but that’s where it comes from.

Considering the time period ATLA was written, considering how much of it was inspired by the US wars of aggression and imperialism, considering how political ATLA is (and why it was so popular during its initial run - during the years that Bush lost a ton of popularity) I think if that’s what they were thinking about, that’s not great.

But for all of Avatar’s good messaging on imperialism and war, it’s still written from a white US American mindset. Well surely I’m not responsible, surely you shouldn’t imprison and abuse me, a random white girl in the States. It’s my government, which I cannot control because of two-party politics or some shit.

So first off, that’s shitty because oppression is often about systems, not individuals. Sure we need to always consider the individual experiences of people who are victimized, but the people who are benefiting from imperialism? Me? Fuck if I care if someone in El Salvador or Iraq or Chile or idk any of the countries we have meddled in, let alone from a marginalized community in the United States, hates white US Americans for what our government has done - and that’s even silly because white US citizens support our government. Like we think the institutions are sound, although sometimes we don’t support the guy in charge. We think the cops are going to help us, even though that isn’t really the case.

Why frame it about what she’s doing to the Fire Nation civilians at all? Why make Hama the villain? I don’t think they wanted her to be unsympathetic, I mean they tell her story and I don’t think anyone would conclude that it doesn’t justify her desire for revenge, but why tell this story through a victim of genocide?

Recently I saw a post by @sunkin-akh where they point out that Hama basically quotes Malcolm X:

I was literally just watching the Hama episode again and I just noticed for the first time that while forcing Katara to bloodbend she says that they must fight back against the Fire Nation (and she used this exact phrase) “by any means necessary”, which is Frantz Fanon’s phrase popularized by Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement (iirc). They directly compared Black liberation to Hama’s evil acts and it disgusted me.

The full context:

Hama: The choice [to use bloodbending] is not yours. The power exists. And it’s your duty to use the gifts you’ve been given to win this war. Katara, they tried to wipe us out, our entire culture, your mother.

Katara: I know.

Hama: Then you should understand what I’m talking about. We’re the last waterbenders of the Southern Tribe, we have to fight these people whenever we can, wherever they are, with any means necessary.

I find that so appalling because it is framing resistance, specifically anti-racist resistance, as barbaric and monstrous. And given the way that Hama is portrayed at this point, about as inhuman as anyone in ATLA, that is extra gross.

Finally, after Katara defeats Hama, she is lead away by the authorities in CHAINS.

So now the FN cops are the good authorities who we’re gonna trust a SWT waterbender with? I mean she’s a villain so we’re probably not supposed to feel bad for her, like yeah sure the FN is usually bad but she’s a criminal so it’s okay that they take a POW back into custody.

No, no, no.

I know I am reading into this far more than the writers intended - but that’s kind of the point of critically engaging with media. Because shockingly writers don’t always question their choices - they are people and have implicit biases just like all of us. When those writers come from a privileged culture that has colonized the culture they are using as “inspiration” for their story, they need to be extra mindful of how they represent those people.

IV: How To Write Hama

Well, I’m not gonna talk over indigenous fans on this one on specifics, and you should read this rewrite by @kispesan​  but my thoughts generally are:

lose the horror framing it’s just not right for this context and this character

don’t frame Malcolm X as a villain because that’s nasty and racist

have Katara learn to use bloodbending in ways that she is comfortable with (and not just like once in one episode where she’s extra vengeful and the hero of the show doesn’t approve of her actions JFC) and don’t make the dark-skinned girl the only character whose special bending skill is dubious (I know she also has healing but still)

bring Hama home

have indigenous people in the writers room

Anyway, I’ve gone on wayyy too long. Let me know if I am speaking out of turn please if you feel that I am. and I’m sure I had other thoughts but if you want to read some other good pieces of Hama meta, I’ve listed some below:

post and another post by @marsreds​

this post and this post by @visibilityofcolor​

this post by @shewhotellsstories​

anyway katara is a queen and should have been allowed to heal, and hama never should have been irredeemable because if you can make iroh redeemable, if the show was going to redeem AZULA, you can make hama redeemable.

[who-is-page]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Plural community, nonhuman community, Dark Souls, Mass Effect, and fandom in general! Go!

Plural Community

The plural community, everything in it aside, is already a fairly difficult space to access if you haven't been introduced to the idea of multiplicity or plurality before-- if you (like we did, and like I imagine many people do) think for an extended period of time that you're alone in the world as some type of many-people-one-body freak, suddenly being exposed to the idea that you're actually not alone in these life-defining experiences can be fucking terrifying. When you combine that with the inherent cruelty that is system medicalist rhetoric, you make the plural community functionally accessible for an incredibly large amount of people. I don't think many people understand the long-reaching effects that sysmed rhetoric has on multiplicity and plurality as its own definitive subculture; sysmeds aren't just traumatizing non-sysmed plurals who disagree with their (anti-science) standpoints, they're also inherently taking away valuable resources from those who need them most: young, vulnerable plurals and people who are only just discovering their plurality and looking for answers.

Nonhuman Community

There is no singular "nonhuman community," in all honesty, so this is difficult to have an unpopular opinion on. There's many small nonhuman communities, some of which like to scream and wail that they're the ~most valid~ when in reality the idea of outsider-oriented validity is a fucking scam and they need to get over themselves. I will say that I disagree with the way some nonhuman communities like to pretend that there's no missing stairs in their local groups, and that I find the idea of there being a threshold of morality connected to nonhumanity to be not only functionally redundant, but also fucking stupid. If someone experiences instincts or urges or feelings connected to their identity, or they identify as a creature or animal often villainized, that doesn't actually mean anything about them as a person and about their moral compass. It's our actions that make us who we are, not parts of our identity that are beyond our control. ...Which circles back around to why ignoring missing stairs, or worse justifying them through the existence of their identity and instinct, is a functionally terrible practice that people should feel ashamed for supporting.

Dark Souls

People who don't bow before they PvP, and people who drink estus during PvP, are fucking maidenless and should go back to Neopets. They can have their rules-less gods-abandoned wasteland there, instead.

Mass Effect

Fem!shep should be considered the canon Shepard, Mass Effect 3 has one of the best DLCs out there with its Citadel DLC, and the Mako IS better than the Hammerhead and I will die on this hill. Mass Effect also has one of the most welcoming fictionkin communities I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of, and Shepard doubles are literally the best fucking people ever to vibe with. I'm also pretty sure the ME fictionkin community is 90% Shepards because all of us die horrible deaths, but I don't know if that's necessarily an unpopular opinion.

Fandom

Super unpopular opinion, but. If someone writes WW fanfiction or WW fanart, especially if they vocally and loudly shit on JKR's work and in no way monetarily support her, then I think that's fine. I feel like it's possible to be openly critical of an author's work and to even help work towards dismantling a piece of media's monetary foothold, while still enjoying fan-made content; these things are not mutually exclusive, and I actually feel like may even put someone who's criticizing it in a better place, because they can even more thoroughly dismantle the media bit by bit.

[tepkunset]

@avatarfandompolice​​​ is a blog that likes to misuse progressive language in attempt to make ignorant, racist posts sound more intelligent than they are. While most of their blog consists of arguing about ‘zutara,’ (which I recently learned is a ship name for Zuko and Katara from an anon), there is also a large number of posts and reblogs under the premise of being “hot takes” on how unfair it is to address racism in fandom and in media.

Avatarfandompolice is very sensitive about people pointing out that Avatar: The Last Airbender is not, in fact, flawless. That a show made by two white men featuring Asian and Indigenous characters and influences is fully capable of getting things wrong. That their western colonial views are influences all on their own, and it shows. Rather than listen to fans of colour point out things like these posts for example: [Link] [Link] [Link], avatarfandompolice has decided that such things must simply be fake, and has made multiple posts complaining it. This is not just regular ignorance, this is wilful ignorance. The dismissal of critique simply because they cannot fathom not everyone being able to handle the amount of issues they are freely educating others on, or people holding the ability to like something overall while also pointing out where it could be better.

It is my firm belief that you should never absorb media with an uncritical eye. If this was the case, if people just accepted everything given to them, then we would never see any progress. We need to be able to look back at something and say here’s what we did right, and here’s what we need to do better with.

The argument that A:TLA was made in 2012 and therefore should not be analyzed with a modern understanding of the world is downright hilarious, too. As if we aren’t taught to write literature analysis on books and plays that are centuries old in school. In particular regards to the whole cop thing... if anyone reading this seriously thinks that hate and fear of the police is just a 2020 trend, you can meet me in the pit. I was four years old when I learned how terrifying cops are. If your experiences differ, let me tell you that does not make them universal. And as for all the 20-somethings talking about it today, well, gentle reminder that as said by avatarfandompolice right here, the show aired in 2012. Little 10-year-old kids don’t have social media, (at least I hope they don’t,) and unless they grew up experiencing first-hand police terror, probably were not aware of it at that age. I do not know why avatarfandompolice insults people's ability to grow and learn. I can only guess it’s jealously from their lack of ability to do so.

Now let’s address their defences of whitewashing, which is easily the most backwards reaching I’ve seen on this issue in a while. Primarily their defence relies on four repetitive “points” —

Fake minuscule percentages to downplay the high prevalence and extremity of whitewashing in the fandom

Deflecting the addressing of whitewashing with rapid-fire fake scenarios and claims of “reverse racism” / “blackwashing”

Claiming whitewashing isn’t real because people only care about it with Katara

Claiming that calling out whitewashing in fandom is wrong because it hurts artists

I have only so much as dipped my toes into the A:TLA fandom, and even I have seen a lot of whitewashed fan art. If you do an image search for fan art, I guarantee within the first couple rows of results, there will be in the absolute least, a few examples. The idea of these artworks not substantially lightening skin is also just plain inaccurate. Just from a quick Google search, this is literally the first result for ‘Avatar The Last Airbender Katara fan art’:

Avatarfandompolice is also hyper-focused on the lightening of skin, and seems to be under the impression that this is the only component of whitewashing. I come to this conclusion because when someone pointed out the equal prevalence of depicting these characters of colour with Western European features instead of their actual eyes, noses, etc., they rip a giant turd out of their ass and scrawl the words “but stereotyping” over it. No, not all Asian peoples and Indigenous peoples look the same. The original poster made no such claim of this at all. Avatarfandompolice jumped to this conclusion all on their own... (which really says a lot in itself). It is entirely unrelated to the point. The point being the erasure of how these characters look, in favour of giving them whiter features. And guess what? This does hurt. But I’ll get to that below.

The lack of understanding of whitewashing is on full display when avatarfandompolice talks about “blackwashing”; the idea that colouring characters with darker skin is just like whitewashing. Firstly, there is no such thing as “blackwashing.” “Blackwashing,” “brownwashing,” etc. does not exist because it is a false equivalency to whitewashing. It is a false equivalency to whitewashing because white people are not even in the slightest loosing representation when a white character is re-imagined as a racial minority, whereas when racial minorities are re-imagined as white people, they are taking away from what is already very little representation for us. If we lived in a world where the statistics of representation were not so drastically disproportionate, then there would be something to talk about. But if you are really wanting to support equality, you should focus on equitably supporting those who actually need it, not white people. As for specifically depicting characters like Sokka and Katara with darker skin than what they have in the show, the same applies, (so long as it’s not racebending them as we really shouldn’t be taking representation away from each other, and the artist avatarfandompolice ridicules above has done no such thing,) because colourism also exists within nonwhite communities as well.

As for the fake questions about cosplaying, the answer is really simple: Cosplay however you want, but don’t make pretending to be a different race part of your cosplay. If you want to cosplay Katara, you can do it without painting your skin darker, aka brownface. If you want to cosplay Zuko, you can do it without editing yourself to look East Asian, aka digital yellowface. The racist history behind this is an internet search away, but I suppose that is too difficult for avatarfandompolice to do.

Avatarfandompolice has made multiple claims that people must not really care about whitewashing if they only call it out for Katara. It is laughable at best, and sad at worst, that this is the conclusion they come to, and not the fact that unfortunately Katara just happens to be subjected to more whitewashing than other characters. I assume this is from a mix of her popularity as well as being a WOC and not MOC. This is not to say that whitewashing does not exist with male characters—not in the slightest. Half the images on this “10 fan art pictures of Sokka that are just the best” list from CBR are whitewashed. Only that across fandoms, whitewashing is more prevalent in female characters, by my observations at least.

Finally—and this one pisses me off the most—avatarfandompolice claims that whitewashing is no big deal, but calling out whitewashing is too harmful to justify. How fucking dare you put the feelings of artists who can’t handle critique of their work (that they publicly share) over fans of colour, who are constantly subjected to seeing our identities and looks not being worth respecting. As if it doesn’t imprint on your mind from a very young age how only villains ever have your facial features, because they’re ugly and I guess that means you’re ugly. As if there is something wrong with you. As if respecting you is regarded as extra effort, and not just common courtesy.

Whitewashing is a form of colourism, which is a form of racism. It is the favouritism, unconscious or not, of white features and the erasure of visible characters of colour. It is not fandom drama. It is not being too lazy to focus on “real issues” because it is part of a real issue. It is yet another part of why fandom spaces are so uninviting to POC. We live in a society that favours lighter skin. Corporations make fortunes from selling products to bleach your skin, products to contour your features away or go as far as surgery, all to meet beauty standards set by and influenced by white colonizers. That does not exist in A:TLA, and that’s called refreshing escapism. But it’s hard to escape that when the fandom constantly reminds you otherwise. It is a perfect example of how the classic “just let people enjoy things” complaint is nothing but disguised racism, because it’s only ever said regarding white fans’ enjoyment, at the expense of fans of colour.

None of the characters in A:TLA are white. Redesigning them and recolouring them as if they are, be it out of accident or intent is wrong. If you get called out for it, apologize, learn from the experience and do better going forward. You’ll also improve your art this way.

Beyond excusing whitewashing, avatarfandompolice has overt racist posts as well. A Black fan said they like to headcanon Katara as being partially Black; “I swear Katara was a sister. Im convinced there ain't no way she didn't have some black in her.” Avatarfandompolice jumps in saying “She's literally an Inuit but ok” as if being an Inuk person means Katara can’t possibly also be Black. The OP never claimed Katara was not Indigenous, simply that they also saw her as Black. Black Indigenous peoples exist. Black Inuk peoples exist. It is overtly anti-Black to say otherwise. But what even is the point of talking to avatarfandompolice about that? You know, you would think in trying to put such a front up of caring about the Inuit, they would do the most basic learning of the proper grammatical use of Inuit and Inuk. (As is the case with a great many Indigenous Nations, Inuit is both the Nation and plural. Inuk is singular. “An Inuit” / “Inuits” as avatarfandompolice has used just makes their dressed-up racism all the more pathetic. It’s similar to as if you said “Chinas” instead of “Chinese”.)

But all this is nothing, nothing compared to the worst post I had the displeasure of seeing. In a single post, avatarfandompolice manages to squeeze in insult against low income people, Mexican people, Jewish people, and Black people in a mockery of financial help posts. Absolutely disgusting, childish behaviour from a place of privilege. As someone who has had no option but to make such a post before, more than once, let me fucking tell you that the embarrassment and desperation when in that situation is unparalleled. It is not done lightly. It is done when you are at the last resort of having nothing but hope that the combined generosity of others will be enough to save you and your family. And what adds a whole other level to the odiousness of avatarfandompolice’s post is that they specifically targeting low income minorities to boot. Because we’re all poor beggars, right?

All in all, for someone who prides themselves in calling others ignorant, avatarfandompolice has to be one of the most obtuse fandom blogs I have ever scrolled through. They are as vile as they are pathetic, and my sincere sympathy for anyone who has been unfortunate enough to interact with them. It has been a while since I so strongly recommend blocking someone.

[theres-no-protocol-for-this]

Hitching a Ride

I don’t know where this idea came from, and I have even less idea about where it’s going. A security construct is hitchhiking across the Corporation Rim. What could possibly go wrong? Part I.

The station's manifest listed the Traveler as a long-distance cargo hauler midway through its multi-month journey. The ship's destination was a freehold world somewhere outside of the Corporation Rim. The trip was slated to take at least twenty cycles. In other words, it sounded like an ideal scenario for a rogue construct trying to get as far from its owner company as physically possible while dealing with a minimal number of humans.

Assuming, of course, the transport would let me along for the ride. 

I approached its embarkation platform during a shift change. It seemed like a good bet. There were a lot of humans around; most of them were low-tech employees who babysat the bots that did most of the heavy lifting. No one paid much attention to a tall, weird stranger in heavy work boots. Probably because I was dressed pretty much identically to most of them. 

I lightly nudged the ship in the feed to see if its bot pilot was amenable to conversing. Directly communicating with vessels was still a novel experience for me. SecUnits have standard protocols for this sort of thing, and I guess I could've fallen back on those. But, I'd spoken to at least a few other bots recently and was learning that each one was different. I'd picked up a few tricks during those interactions and wanted to see if any of them might work.

I'd learned, for example, that most ships are programmed to protect themselves from theft. Sounds reasonable -- these are insured vessels, often with precious cargo inside -- and no one wants to pay for its loss. But most of the anti-theft measures assume some form of human involvement. So, odds were good that no one had told the Traveler to be wary of other friendly bots or constructs.

"Hello," I said via the feed when the ship didn't immediately disregard my ping. "May I ride with you to your next destination?" 

I used words and images to convey the message because most of the bots I'd met so far didn't speak like human beings. Also, I had nothing to offer the transport.  Then again, the bots I'd ridden with so far hadn't necessarily wanted anything. My last ride had been bored and seeking friendly company, and the ship before that had wanted to discuss star charts in depth. I now knew more about mapmaking than I ever wanted to. 

The Traveler, which had an unfamiliar logo on its hull, answered by opening the nearest airlock and sending a small drone to meet me. The floating cylinder with tiny mechanical arms beeped impatiently at me as it hovered in front of my face. It didn't stop until I came inside the airlock cycled shut behind me. 

Most of the ships I'd ridden so far mostly communicated with me in images and snippets of code. Only one had used spoken words, and that had been an uncomfortable experience all around. I'd gotten to know perhaps half a dozen ship-based machine intelligences since starting the journey, and none of them thought even remotely like me. Their minds were beautifully alien and utterly fascinating, a far cry from the humans I'd dealt with for most of my life.

The Traveler's drone stared at me with its single-lens camera. I looked away and scanned the room. 

It was barren but spotless and minimally furnished. Several space-capable evacuation suits hung in a locker to my left. Dim, diffuse lighting cast the corridor ahead of me in deep, dark shadows. A strip of bright illumination pointed the way deeper into the ship. 

The transport was running with only minimal life support, and it was chilly as I walked down the hall, following the drone. I shivered and slowed my breathing as much as possible. Without plenty of oxygen, I'd need to spend more time in stasis, but it was a small price to pay for a ride out of the Rim. 

I felt something large appear in the feed, a vast and complex presence, unlike anything I'd ever encountered before. It had the overall signature of the Traveler but didn't behave anything like the other bot pilots that I'd met. Its massive size reflecting some vast array of processing power, and I wondered what it worked on when not ferrying freight and passengers across the galaxy.

My risk assessment module advised caution. Anything that powerful could probably decimate the protective walls around my mind if it wanted to. That it let me in at all suggested it wasn't malicious. But, like with any sentient mind, you never know. 

"What are you?"  I asked.

"A better question might be what you are and what do you want."

This was new. None of the bots had spoken with me like this before. The one who had bothered with words had preferred quoting ancient poets. The intelligence behind these words sounded... curious, perhaps, and just as cautious as I was. I could understand its pressing questions; rogue constructs are unpredictable, and we're seen as catastrophically dangerous by most humans. I think the media plays up the dangerous part. Inviting one aboard could spell a lot of trouble for the Traveler.

"I'm a SecUnit. I'm trying to leave the Corporation Rim."

"Are you rogue?"

"I think so," I admitted hesitantly. "My governor malfunctioned several standard months ago."

"What happened to your arm? Do you require medical assistance?" Transport sounded concerned. Frowning sigils tumbled across the feed. 

Oh yeah, that. I looked down at my left arm. The long sleeve was tucked upward so it wouldn't get in the way. Underneath it, the appendage ended midway between shoulder assembly and elbow. The rest was gone. "I was injured and have not visited a repair cubicle since then."

Meanwhile, the drone I was following stopped in front of a door, which slid open. Inside was a well-furnished and well-stocked recreation room; I wondered at its purpose since the hauler had no passenger manifest. Who was supposed to be using this space?

A display screen took up most of an entire wall, and several couches stood opposite of it. There were also chairs and plush pillows on the floor. A small snack counter stood tucked into a corner, along with a recycler and a heating unit. 

Transport turned up the internal temperature and spun up its life support systems. I could hear the hum of air circulators kicking on. The drone beeped at me to come inside and then floated leisurely over to a cabinet. It grabbed a blanket and dropped it in front of my face. Out of pure reflex, I caught the soft material before it could fall. 

"I have some media we can watch," the ship informed me. "I also have a full medical suite. You could use it if you want." A moment later, it added, as an afterthought, "Captain Owens will come aboard in a few minutes, and we're slated for departure in a matter of hours."

The display came on, but I wasn't paying attention. "I need to leave."

"Why?" Transport asked, clearly puzzled.

"A human is going to ask questions. They might even return me to the bonding company." Also, I'm not good at dealing with people. 

"I already received verbal approval from the captain to provide transportation for you to our next destination." The ship's presence emanated its version of distress, and I didn't know why. "Stay."

"You what?"

"I followed the protocol. I knew that the captain was on her way, and I wanted you to ride with me. And the easiest way was to tell my captain. I think you should sit down and relax." Transport reminded me of a human child, a powerful and dangerous one at that. "Captain's nice. She doesn't get mad."

"Fuck you."

I stood in the middle of the rec room and stared straight ahead at an off-white wall. I wanted to leave -- up until this point, self-preservation had involved avoiding humans who might decide to return me to the corporation that still technically owned me. But, this human had supposedly already agreed to my continued presence, and this hauler was my best bet for leaving the station.

"You're mad."

"Yes. Yes, I am." I was also scared and shaking. I didn't want to go back.

"We can watch shows together. Captain Owens won't mind." The ship pulled back from the feed, giving me space to think, but it was still there—a black hole hiding in a corner. "I've downloaded some excellent ones." The little drone bobbed up and down and beeped sadly. "I've never talked to a construct before. I want to. You're more like me than like the captain. Or the crew."

"Same here," I admitted. 

"So, stay. It's safe here."

"It's not," I replied. "I don't like this. Your human could order you to hurt me, and you wouldn't have a choice."

My mind stuck on the word "safe." I'd never felt the need to seek out safety before, but the idea sounded... appealing. 

When my governor had been active, any mistake could potentially lead to painful punishment. If the transgression was particularly heinous, any human could order my termination. I don't fear dying, not how humans seem to interpret it, but I want to continue existing. 

Once my governor couldn't control me anymore, I had been terrified that someone would discover the malfunction. Without a functioning governor, they couldn't order me around, which made me -- in their eyes -- an unpredictable and dangerous weapon. I figured if the company knew, they would take me apart to see how the malfunction had occurred and then break me down for spare parts. 

I don't want that, either.

The door behind me slid open, and a deep, feminine voice said, "Trav only listens to me when it wants to. And maybe not even then. Welcome aboard the Traveler, stranger. My name's Skye, and it's a pleasure to have some company on this otherwise dull run."

I turned to face the newcomer as her information card popped into the feed. Transport also gave me access to the local communications array and some of the ship's internal cameras. 

One of the cameras was in the recreation room, so I connected to it and saw myself through its fisheye lens. I could also see Skye Owens, currently listed captain of this vessel and a doctor of biology. She was tall with light-brown skin, shoulder-length, curly hair, and pitch-black eyes. I'm not great at human ages, but I thought she might be older.

"You look lost," the captain added as she walked past me and sat down on one of the mauve couches. "I imagine this hasn't been easy, and I think the ship can be... a little overbearing when it wants something."

I checked the expression on my face through the camera. Yep, I was making a face -- one I couldn't even interpret.

"Am not!" Transport complained.

"Are too, and you know it." Skye looked up at the nearest camera and stuck out her tongue. "But seriously, you're welcome here, whoever you are."

"SecUnit," I said aloud automatically. 

I wondered about the relationship between the captain and her ship. It was apparent the two were friends, enough so that they bantered with one another; SecUnits weren't permitted this much camaraderie with other constructs. 

I had never encountered a situation like this before, where another human was aware of my status and still comfortable in my presence. Some of my previous clients had assumed that constructs can't speak, and others despised that we could. It was... weird.

Transport cast something onto the display, and an intro began to play in the background. The drone brought over snacks and set them on a low table between the couches. 

"A pleasure to meet you, SecUnit." Skye grabbed herself a pack of crunchy vegetables and then patted the seat next to her.

"She wants you to join her," Transport offered helpfully. "My crew does this thing where they're all together. They sit in front of the screen, eat snacks, and poke fun at whatever they're watching. It's entertaining."

The worst of the anxiety from earlier had passed, and I found that I didn't much care what the human chose to do. If she notified the authorities, which looked less likely with each passing moment, I'd deal with the consequences. Shrugging, I took a seat on the floor in front of the empty couch and leaned against it.

Setting the blanket aside, I turned my attention to the display. Entertainment media was still a new concept for me. I'd caught glimpses of it during various deployments, but most of it I hadn't understood until more recently. And I guess I wanted to see what the humans found so pleasing about the whole thing.

[evilelitest2]

Why do fascists hate capitalism?

Good question.  About half the reasons they hate capitalism are the same reason most leftist do, bad people are still likely to be annoyed at a bad thing that hurts them. Here are the other reasons 

1) Fascists don’t believe in social mobility.  Capitalism core tenant is “social mobility’, that somebody can work hard and become a billionaire, blah blah blah.  Now this focus on social mobility is and always has been mostly a lie, but even rhetorically capitalism values the notion of social advancement.  fascists do not, in fascist ideology, your birth determines your place in the world, and is part of a “natural order”.  The only way to improve yourself is through war, and even that is more fulfilling your existing destiny rather than creating your own.  Thus Fascists despises any form of social advancement outside military leadership, which is a major reason why they hate liberalism, socialism and communism, but its also a reason why they hate capitalism (though they usually prioritize the left wing ideologies first).  This is even more true for them when somebody they think is “inferior” advances ‘above their station.  Fascists aren’t aristocratic, but they hate capitalism for much of the same reason that the feudal aristocrats and monarchs hated it.  It brings change and challenges the caste system 

(Speaking of which) 

2) On that note, capitalism is rarely…ideologically racist.  Now capitalism is racist, it promotes and enforces existing racial hierarchies, and much of the damage of colonialism can be laid at the feet of capitalism.  However capitalist ideology rarely buys directly into blood purity or “The Volk” style race theory that fascists so love.  Capitalism in the US makes it super difficult for a black man to advance compared to his white counterpart, but if a black man does manage to become a billionaire, capitalism is basically cool with it.  If you look at a demographic breakdown of the 1%, it is mostly old white men (and almost all people who at least partially inherited their wealth) but it also includes a lot of non white people and women.  its a minority and many of them come from dictatorships (Saudi Arabia, China ect) but the ‘richest people in the world club isn’t entirely monochromatic.  To leftists, this doesn’t seem especially impressive, but to fascists it is way too much diversity.  Because capitalism is at its heart…amoral, the system will keep going even if the 1% are majority non white, gay or women, but to fascists that is terrifying.  they barely tolerate capitalism because the ruling class are mostly straight white dudes, but the thought of the ruling class not overlapping with their belief in racial science to them is terrifying 

3) Capitalism is ultimately an amoral system.  It doesn’t really believe in a larger ideology beyond “make a fuck ton of money”  and “innovate…somehow.” It does evil things because it believes that doing so will make them money, if doing the right thing will make them more money, they will.  Capitalism is just an utterly mercenary ideology, and will gladly pretend to support progressive causes if it turns a profit.  Again, leftists (rightly) aren’t big fans of this, but fascists hate it for the same reason we do honestly.  

Like you know the whole “Woke capitalism” thing that gets leftists worked up.  its doing something good but you know they don’t care and so they will abandon us the moment they feel like they can get away with it and all that.  That is how fascists feel about the racism in capitalism, they like it but because it is not ideological, they don’t trust it. 

Again this seems weird to leftists, but yes, fascists don’t like capitalism because it isn’t racist enough.  We tend to interact with capitalism more than fascism, so people often don’t realize how much worse it can get 

4) Capitalism doesn’t care about the spiritual, except as something to sell.  ironically for all the hatred capitalism and communism have for each other, the two ideologies actually share a lot in common, they are super secular, materialist, and basically assume that everything in the world is nothing more than simply products.  Communists and capitalists disagree on what should be done with these goods, but neither of them believe there is anything beyond this world.

Fascists utterly reject this world view, they hate it, they hate it with a thousand suns.  I know that there current image is a sort of ironic racism chanboard nonsense, but in terms of their actual beliefs, Fascists take everything super seriously.  The entire argument of Nazism is that they value symbols more than actual human life, and they are fiercely attached to various “spiritual” political issues even if they are officially atheists.  I mean capitalism doesn’t give a damn about “degeneracy” because it isn’t actually a material thing, its just an aesthetic preference, there is no like “measurement” of degeneracy.  same goes for honor, the family, purity, and their approach to art, fascism is in many ways about finding meaning in otherwise mundane things.  So at fascist rally to them is this transcendental almost religious experience, while a capitalist would be more It interested in trying to find a way to make money off it.   Fascism is a highly Romantic movement, which doesn’t play well with the cynical wordy perspective of capitalists, who believe in nothing.  

Fascists also dislike aristocracy, but they love the myth and romance that is necessary for aristocracy and monarchy.  They basically want aristocracy of the skin.  

5) Fascists kinda…hate the idea of money.  Like Capitalism emerged from the merchant classes and is basically came about with the argument “all of your aristocratic concerns over honor, titles, and god are stupid, what matters is who has the money and how you use it”  And Fascists just hate that worldview, one of their defining traits is their love of war and conflict, in fact fascists prioritize war over almost everything else.  It has been noted by smarter men than I (I recommend Ur Fascism) that Fascism is basically a death cult, they want effectively an endless war that they can die gloriously in destroying their enemies.  

Consistently by the way, fascists will prioritize destroying the people they see as inferior over securing their own material best interest.  Hitler probably could have run his dictatorship in Germany on his own for quite a long time and lived in luxury, but he wanted a giant war because that is what they care about.  

in fact actively seem to indulge in self destructive short term ideologies.  The Nazi economic policy was an absolute joke, with the economy serving as nothing more than something to keep the war effort going.  Stephen Miller, the most fascist like person in trump’s administration, is hyper fixated on a brutal immigration policy, even though it actually hurts the economy.  Fascists oppose freedom of movement and free trade, even though those are policies neoliberal capitalism supports.  The reason is that Fascists value the preservation of “The Volk” over profits, and would rather their people suffer than have to live alongside other races (these people are deeply stupid)

6) Fascism doesn’t enjoy having fun.   I know for most of, our experience of capitalism is misery as we work, to earn the right to work, to earn the right to give, ourselves the right to buy, ourselves the right to live, to earn the right to die.  However the way that capitalism sells itself is basically “buy lots of shit and that will make yourself happy”.    

Fascism doesn’t really…like being happy.  As i said before, they like war, they like conflict, they like having an enemy who they can destroy.  To fascists, what matters most is how you kill and how you die, rather than enjoying life.  Fascism is about fetishistic death.  Pink Floyd was right that Fascism is almost a form of intellectual suicide.  

If you look at Japanese fascism, there is big fixation on aesthetic purity focus, with the only thing mattering being conflict 

7) Capitalism tends to value the urban, the industrial, and the technology, while fascists, like the Confederates before them, are enamored with the rural and the pre-industrial.  This might seem surprising, but there are a lot of fascists who are into environmentalism, Nazis Germany was one of the first states to pass laws banning animal cruelty and limiting smoking.  Fascists are really into this sort of “Clean earth, clean people’ aesthetic which always serves as the breeding ground for cruelty.

8) Capitalism tends to be leery of state control and fascists are all about that shit 

9)Finally….we need to be frank.  A lot of the ways we talk about anti capitalism actually can fit really nicely into the antisemitic narratives that so dominated fascist thinking.  

so the Marxist says 

“Hey the entire world is controlled by a tiny elite of rich greedy parasites who are making us fight each other in order to benefit themselves”

And the Fascist says 

“Yeah….they are Jewish”

its actually really hard to depict the rich as a class without accidentally wandering into anti Jewish sentiments, because the last 2,000 years of anti Jewish racism has been about creating conspiracy theories where they secretly control the entire world.  A lot of what fascism does is taking existing issues of capitalism and being like “oh yeah…that is the fault of the Jews.  Or migrants/African Americans/Muslims/feminists ect.  Gamergate is a good example of this, they are pissed at corporations, but they blame feminists rather than you know…the inherently predatory nature of capitalism.  Many of the things we don’t like about capitalism are things they also don’t like about capitalism.  This is a major thing they do in terms of recruiting, they focus on getting people pissed at capitalism but then make it be secretly run by Jews rather than you know..Jeff Bezos.

  (nazi properganda and below are soviet Images of capitalism ) 

(and sometimes both) 

This is why btw, I am less anti capitalist than most leftists, because talking to fascists makes you appreciate things about them.  Hitler was destroyed by both a communist dictatorship and a capitalist democracy working together.  

Its worth noting that while fascists do hate capitalism, they hate socialism a lot more, and tend to ally with capitalist to kill leftists, as we see from the Weimar Republic.  Fascist are often ok with certain types of corporate authoritarianism, but in the same way the left can be ok with somebody like Obama.  

(Frank Miller’s Batman is if Libertarian and Fascism had a baby) 

The lesson I would take from this is that just because somebody hates the thing you hate, doesn’t mean they are necessarily your ally, they might in fact be even worse. Yet another reason to distrust the dirtbag left 

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

is dean abusive? i´m a huge SPN fan and recently someone said that to me. this person had some pretty valid points. dean does use violence and threats againts people, when they not behave the way,he want´s them to behave. and now i´m wondering if i never recognised that, bc i was blinded by my love for the character. so what do you think? is dean abusive or not?

Hi! “Dean is abusive” is an argument that apparently circulates in anti-Dean circles, and many bloggers more eloquent than me have refuted it before, but it’s not like anti circles are permeable to things like logic and common sense.

Dean is a victim of abuse and trauma. He’s been a victim of childhood abuse and neglect, physical violence, gaslighting, torture... he’s experienced several kinds of emotional, physical, psychological and (implied) sexual abuse, it’s shocking that he even functions as a human being.

Victims of abuse, mentally ill people - they’re still valid even if they don’t act like the pretty model of the “nice” victim. The way people react to trauma and behave as survivors isn’t always pretty and palatable to the bourgeois self-righteous. (Considering that Dean has grown up as the woman of the household and has repeatedly been placed in feminized situations, ask yourself if it weren’t a horrifying misogynistic demand to expect him to just perform the emotional labor of proving for others while quenching his own negative emotions and calibrating his behavior, even in contexts of danger/emergency, so that he acts nice.)

The thing that separates Dean from other certain male characters in media is that his trauma isn’t some “you blame bad parenting?” circumstance. His trauma isn’t just some original childhood trauma in the past that he uses to justify his behavior as an adult.

In Dean’s case, we’re talking complex post-traumatic stress disorder (I know there’s debate in certain communities regarding the approach to PTSD when, in fact, the circumstances that cause the trauma are ongoing and therapist cannot apply the “post-trauma” approach - basically the model of PTSD treatment is modeled after typically “Western” experiences like soldiers’, who just go and come home away from the source of the trauma, but that’s useless for people who live in communities like the Gaza strip, or Black American citizens who experience police brutality and similar phenomena, because they can’t just remove them from the source of the trauma).

Dean’s trauma is constantly ongoing, even if changing in nature and perpetrators. He never really gets an opportunity to take a step away from the trauma and heal a bit. Dean lives in an almost-constant state of emergency - there’s always something going on, so he’s almost always wired on the setting appropriate for highly stressful situations. (In fact, when he’s in between cases and he’s not facing some immediate threat and he gets the chance to relax a bit without manipulations or stuff going on, he just acts chill...)

“Dean is abusive” completely erases Sam and/or Cas as characters, too, because it reduces Sam and/or Cas as poor, innocent, agency-less figures that are just there for Dean to abuse, when the reality of their character is waaay more complex, realistic, and interesting. I can count situations in which Sam and Cas acted in abusive ways towards Dean, and ignoring them is doing a DISSERVICE to complex, rich characters and storylines.

I mean, just like in Dean’s case, Sam and Cas acting in "ugly” ways doesn’t make them “abusers”, just people in traumatic circumstances where they just can’t win. Pointing at one of them and calling them abusive of the other(s) also means not considering them equals - I’d rather consider them equals who struggle their ways through their lives together, and sometimes make mistakes, and do “unsavory” things occasionally, because their lives suck and there is never a clear-cut good choice.

I enjoy a messy, ruthless, complicated Sam over an imaginary poor victim of Dean’s abuse, you know? Just like I enjoy a messy, fierce Cas who is simultaneously hardened and yet soft and compassionate over an imaginary poor kicked puppy who just takes the abuse and acquiesces...?

Dean loves fiercely. Dean’s priority is saving people. Dean is scared, all the time. Isn’t the whole point of his “anger” that it’s actually fear and a desperate attempt to navigate the helplessness of his life? Isn’t the whole point of his trying to get control that he doesn’t have control, ever, and that’s terrifying?

Fuck people who say that Dean is abusive and controlling. Because to be that, he should have a) power, b) control. The whole point is that he doesn’t have either. You can’t exert exert power or control when you don’t have them. (Sure, there are emotional power dynamics between the brothers at times, but are you telling me that Sam never ever holds an emotional power knife from the handle side between them? Mm? Sam can be downright cruel at times, and obviously it’s just a "trashed bathroom” situation - when you don’t have control over what matters, you exert it on the thing you can actually reach - but if we can understand Sam, we can understand Dean.)

[onisiondrama]

PART 11 - videos #20 & 21

(Click here for video mirrors) - These are not my words or thoughts, I’m just summarizing what Greg / James is saying in his videos. Apologies for any offensive language or comments that may appear. - I am not repeating stories anymore and will replace these stories with brackets describing what he’s talking about. If you don’t know these stories you’re going to have to go back and read previous parts or watch his previous videos.

a message

- Says he’s still mad at the Socrates, or Oedipius, or the guy that made love to his mom, quote. It’s unfair to start a campaign about someone and only talk to people they hard rejected from their life and talk to no one who is fine with them. You have a biased, dishonest presentation, outrage culture, fraud. In reference to the quote, he asks if you lose when you resort to slander, if you start you campaign with slander are you already a loser? With all the news articles about Chris Hansen he was probably already a loser. - He wants to read another email. The person says they’ve been following the story unfold. Greg says he’s like candy tits, everyone’s obsessed with the fake Onision drama. There’s no one in his basement but him, fucking idiots. People think this is like another episode of R Kelly interviews. He doesn’t see the value in anyone under 19 at this point. They have garbage brain. He lucked out with Kai. Says he still doesn’t know what’s going on with their relationship at the moment. - Person says they’re glad he’s finally talking about everything in a serious way. He says it’s sad the internet forced him to do this. When someone’s silent, creepy motherfuckers make theories about them. He might lose fans for saying this, but you guys have to accept the truth. You’re awful drama queens. He’s only addressing this because people used their perverted minds to make stuff up about him. Hansen is the most creepy of all and made the most wild theories and he never met him. [He pretends to be Chris Hansen and says there might be 12 people Greg sexually assaulted, then greets Mike Morse and says they can both project onto him.] - Person says they’re not a fan or anti-o. Greg clarifies anti-o is anti-Onision. There’s a whole community that’s anti Onision because they have nothing better to do with their lives. He says he doesn’t call himself anti-OJ, anti-Michael Jackson, or anti-R Kelly because he has a life. If you join an anti Onision community you’re probably a moron who should have been aborted. - Person says they’re objective, but a SJW and believes you should always believe victims. Greg says “always believe victims” isn’t the same as “always believe alleged victims.” People who are rejected lash out. When he was around 17, a girl who was a year older than her dumped him and he lashed out at her. She told him she did drugs and was tied to a tree and taken advantage of. He was mortified, but frustrated that she was on drugs that put her into that state. He doesn’t know if she drugged more while already on drugs. He doesn’t know why he shared that story, he doesn’t have a filter. When he was 17 he demonized her because he wasn’t mature. He wanted to feel sorry for himself. Instead of lashing out, he defends himself. You don’t lash out at people unless they lash out first otherwise they can use that to claim they’re innocent. You shouldn’t believe people who just point fingers, you should believe evidence.  - Person says perception is reality. Through their experiences they knows how young ladies can be so they wanted to hear Greg’s side without the Onision character. They feel he did that and they believe him. They say they’re sure these girls believe their stories. Greg says no they don’t. [Lists reasons why he dumped them.] He doesn’t see how they can warp that into them being a victim. If you get fired from a job, typically it’s not the job’s fault. It’s your fault. People reinvent reality to make them self the victim. - Person says they believe there is truth to the girls’ stories in many aspects. Greg tells them to be specific. - Person says they also believe Greg’s side and they’re proud of him for making these videos. They say the truth will prevail and they hope Greg, Kai, and these girls are able to find resolve at the end. [Greg talks about and describes the crime Sarah went through in detail.] He says he believes Sarah because she didn’t go on a campaign against the person that committed the crime. She ignored it and that’s how you typically are when you go through horrible things. Like how Kai reacted to what Greg and Sarah did to him. Everyone should respect Kai, a silent victim. Says Sarah lied before, but in that situation she’s not seeking money or clout. It’s just a story she told him, so that proves to him there she had no motive to make it up. He’s saying she needs to go on Hansen and release the name of the person who committed the crime against her. - Person says they’re writing the email to encourage Greg and Kai to stay brave. They tell him they’re not taking screen shots of their emails. Greg says it’s sad people have to say they’re not taking screen shots. That’s why he hasn’t been putting screen shots in these video. [Lost Patreon by posting a “nice” screen shot story.]  Says he’s terrified of screen shotting people because they can manipulate it. - [Greg goes on about how you should report stuff, but it might be taken seriously because people lie about being victims.]

noticed

- Email from former Patreon apologizing for believing the internet rumors. Says they changed their mind when they watched Hansen’s interview with Sarah and she said she had been collecting evidence on Greg since she was 16, normal victims don’t do that. Greg says it’s news to him that she was out to get him since she was 16. He says in another email he found out she admitted nothing happened until she was 18 1/2. He clarifies she didn’t says 1/2, but that’s when it happened. - Person says that’s when they realized this was a sting operation against Greg, especially since she was in contact with his past exes. Greg says it’s weird because Sarah would trash his exes in front of him and Kai all the time. She would say Billie is stupid and Ayalla is a psycho. He thinks she says the same about himself and Kai. He doesn’t trust Sarah, especially after she switched personalities. [Sarah blackmailed story] Says after Sarah stormed off with her suitcase, Kai went to check on her and Sarah turned around happy and said hi to Kai. He says this was a weird personality change. Kai knew Greg saw Sarah upset last before Kai approached Sarah. - Person says they see red flags. [Crime committed against Sarah] He says he has a hero complex so he felt bad for her when she told him about it, but the red flags are that she’s being malicious to people who did nothing wrong to her and not malicious to someone who committed a crime against her. He says she might be going after them because there’s more to gain for attacking people who are well known. - Person asks for forgiveness. Greg forgives them. - Person asks what victim gathers evidence for two years before they become a victim? Greg agrees and says Sarah said nothing happened until she was past 18. [Dat booty tho story, Sarah threatening to take pills and confessed love for Greg story] He says there’s a whole demented, twisted delusion and it’s not surprising her story keeps changing. [Sarah said Kai did nothing wrong, bloopers look suspicious explanation] - Person lists examples and suggests Sarah was taking notes because she knew she would be groomed one day and would keep coming back to their house. [Or at least that’s what Greg said they said. I had a hard time understanding him when he was directly reading.] Greg says all the evidence Sarah presented was from when she was well into adulthood. When you go out on a date with someone and you’re nice to them you can say they were grooming you. [Sarah said she groomed Greg and Kai, blackmail.] - [Greg finds another supportive email.] He thanks them and tells them he’s not a victim. Kai’s a victim, Kai’s not evil. He and Sarah know Kai is a good person. Says Sarah said the other day she still has love for Kai while she tried to destroy Kai’s life. - He says apparently Sarah fake cried in her blooper video. He was written about how she’s so bad at fake crying. [Lists blooper video differences.]  - Says Sarah wrote to his requesting he take down the video where she says Kai was innocent when he uploaded it the second time. He was told she tweeted something stupid and political like “to a divided house shall not stand” or something right after he uploaded it. He received an email from her requesting the removal of the video. Sarah’s trying to cover up that video because it was so damning to her. He tells viewers to watch the video. He tells viewers to consider the fact Kai was pressured into doing things and that Sarah apologized for r-a-p-i-n-g folks. He says once you get woke and connect the dots you can come back to reality with the rest of is.

[fozmeadows]

1) I was binge-reading your Wordpress blog a few days back and came upon a post you made where you talked about the ubiquity of really bad/rapey/abusive relationships in SFF and how early exposure to those stories changed how you looked at real-life and fictional romances, and it got me thinking: how can we talk about the real challenges and troubles of Problematic Fiction without, like, giving everything over to the antis? because as somebody who cares about the messages in media but who also

It’s a hugely important issue, I think - and my short answer is, it hinges on context, circulation, criticism and conversation. When you look at a fanfic on AO3, the tagging system means that you, the reader, are either forewarned about the presence of any dark or squicky themes at the outset, or are made aware via the ‘author chooses to use no archive warnings’ tag that you’re venturing into the unknown. I’ve said this before, but to me, knowing the author knows a particular theme or relationship is badwrong, dubcon or otherwise fucked up allows me to enjoy the story in a way I otherwise couldn’t, because it changes how I receive the narrative - letting me know if I’m meant to accept the characters and their narration as correct, or if I’m meant to be reading critically. Some stories achieve this function with narrative framing - as in, something within the story itself lets us know that particular actions or characters are Bad, or at very least morally grey - but when a story is depicting dark themes without internal commentary, authorial intent becomes vital to interpretation. This is, for instance, why so many fuckboys think Tyler Durden is a hero in Fight Club instead of a terrifying asshole: they missed the fact that Chuck Palahniuk was writing ironically, and so took away the exact opposite message to the one intended.

Likewise in the case of Fight Club, the context and the circulation matter hugely to the impact. The film was a mainstream product with widespread distribution, and it came out in 1999, three years after the book was written. The idea of the protagonist lamenting belonging to a disenfranchised generation without a war to define them - aside from being inaccurate in the first place - was obliterated by the political landscape of the early noughties in the wake of 9/11, which in turn changed how the film was perceived in our cultural memory. All that being so, I’d argue that it had a much more toxic effect than was ever intended, in large part because the idea that the characters should be critiqued rather than lauded was missed in the mainstream dialogue around it for a long time. In the same vein, I’ve never held to the idea that fanwriters should be free to write whatever because stories don’t impact readers or reality - manifestly, stories *do* matter, and they can certainly impact their audiences in ways their creators don’t necessarily intended. Rather, I’ve held that fanwriters should be free to write whatever because, firstly, there’s no sensible, foolproof way to censor fanworks anymore than there’s one to censor other forms of art; and secondly, because fanwriting in particular is currently far ahead of the mainstream in its use of tagging and criticism, which are the real tools needed to navigate art and our reactions to it in the first place.

When I read fucked-up romances in mainstream SFF as a teen and absorbed the message that those romances were cool and normal and a little bit thrilling, it wasn’t because those stories should never have existed, or even because I shouldn’t have been allowed to read them; it was because they - and I - existed in a critical vacuum about their contents. I didn’t have an IRL or online community where I could go and talk about my favourite books and read enlightening essays about the character dynamics, and I didn’t have access to any older SFF fans who, just by virtue of having more adult experience in the world, could’ve helped me clue in by saying something like, “I love the magic and worldbuilding, but man, X novel is rapey.” We don’t learn how to be critical of media - how to analyse it, how to love a thing while still acknowledging and understand its flaws - as an automatic process: we have to be taught, or actively undertake the task of teaching ourselves. A lack of critical thinking about the narratives we consume and create - just like the cultural and political narratives we consume and create, for that matter - is the real cause of harm to readers; which is a major reason why fandom, for all its flaws, is so hugely important: it makes us think.

So, to answer your question: the problem I have with antis in this context is the idea that one piece of fiction is all things to all people: that there’s only ever one valid reaction to any one work, and if just one person has a bad reaction, then the work - and other works like it - is therefore inherently Bad. Purity wank deliberately elides the distinction between authorial intent and critical reception, arguing that the only way to prevent Bad Reactions To Fiction is censorship, instead of - as is actually the case - self-curating what we read, analysing the contents and thinking about their impact, while accepting that different people might have wildly different, yet still valid, needs and reactions to us. 

[moonsabr]

Disney Fever Rant

Let’s be honest with ourselves, the Family Friendly Disney©️™️ Corporation became nothing but another soulless, creatively bankrupt, money hungry business that has a board full of greedy — potentially and allegedly (don’t sue me Disney) potentially criminally so — directors who, according to Abigail Disney allegedly underpay their employees, and only put in any sort “effort” (READ: spending half of their film’s marketing budget buying up opening night seats to make sure that every single one of their films makes $1 Billion dollars because God forbid Disney have a single flop), believed they didn’t need to market Galaxy’s Edge because Chief Executive Asshole Bob “I know we’re having a bad quarter & our PR is in the shitter but imma take a book tour for my autobiography real quick” Iger thought it would market itself (this is the same Disney CEO Bob Iger, by the way, who keeps raising prices because he’s so confident in the brand created, built, and embedded permanently within previous decades of Americana due to the hard work and creative genius of Walt Disney that he believes he can peddle out absolute garbage without consequence. CEO of Disney Lil’ Bitch Bobbie “My salary is 1,000x Greater Than the Average Disney Employees Even Though My Decisions Are Causing a Cutback in Hours and Even Getting People Laid Off” Iger really got his head up his ass because he believes he can say shit insanely out of touch and greedy shit like “[I can’t imagine] a maximum price guests will pay for a ticket to [our] theme parks” and keep hiking up the prices until one day, big surprise, this foolish, smug turd charged too much or didn’t market enough or maybe, people are just not blinded by the now-defunct and decades-long neglected Disney Magic™️ because the man in charge is more focused on a single-minded and extremely concerning-to-artistic-integrity-and-the-very-concepts-of-free-speech-and-fair-trade-and-anti-monopolistic fair business practices of purchasing every potentially lucrative IP known to man in a move so anti-competitive that they were forced by the fucking U.S. Justice Department to sell off some of their news properties — oh, but it’s okay, guys! The extremely hardworking and under-appreciated employees of Disney World will finally be making a baseline amount of $15/hour, so at least those hardworking folks can have the chance of affording a shared apartment less than 40 minutes away from the park! And hey, at least we’ll inevitably get a Summer Blockbuster X-Men trilogy, which I’m sure won’t be a bland and extremely superficial set of films more concerned with entertaining a general audience than preserving the heart of X-Men and why it was created and what it continues to symbolize. Good Ol’ Bobbie Buy-ger’s “Hello, Fellow Children” Disney will absolutely not make a mockery of the integrity with which those contemporaneously radical set of complex and volatile cultural and sociopolitical issues of the 1960′s were addressed via the humanization of both the protagonistic X-Men, who were peaceful advocates for the (then-primarily racially coded) mutants’ integration and equality within a society that is terrified and disgusted by them, in contrast with the slowly developing and unexpected depth of character and humanization of the members of the Brotherhood of Mutants, who are constantly portrayed as an antagonistic but not wholly evil foil to the X-Men as a much more violent group of radicals with a more extreme and militant approach to gaining mutant’s rights (coded heavily at the time, of course, as the Black Panther Movement) which fought for an apartheid with a zealous “Mutant’s First” slogan, believing themselves superior to humans without the X-Gene. And because of the appropriately addressed and carefully handled themes, mutants occasionally even switched sides because after all, they were all fighting for mutant rights. Baring in mind the intricacies and mature themes of X-Men and the MCU’s masterfully sophisticated and tactfully manifold take on sexism which can be succinctly summarized as “WOMAN GOOD; MAN BAD” (which strikes me as particularly unusual narrative composition to frame the villain, who has assaulted a stranger and stolen his property because he gave her a cheesy pickup line that wasn’t particularly sexual or intimidating, as the hero of the story — clearly, if the Disney MCU is willing to create such an experimental piece of avant-garde cinema verité wherein the reality of a cruel, spiteful, and sadistic person is constantly thrust into the spotlight and incessantly touted as a heroic figure is put on display. None of this would have been possible, however, without a courageously flawless and unconventional choice to hire Brie Larson via the application of typage casting, allowing Boden and Fleck to shine a  b l a c k  m i r r o r , if you will allow me to be so edgy and bold as to use such a trite phrase in this post Netflix world, on our own flawed society, they will be capable of producing a mere three trivial films on something so relatively simplistic as translating the extremely volatile and divided zeitgeist of race relations in the height of the civil rights movement into a modern, appropriate, and respectful piece of representative fiction.

I’m sure Disney CEO Bob “Galaxy’s Edge Only Severely Underperformed Because People Were Worried There Would Be Too Many People There and This Has Nothing to Do With the Fact that I Thought My Dick Was Bigger Than It Actually Is and So I Thought I Could Get Away Without Marketing it Whatsoever Until Like 3 Months Before it Opened in Disneyland Because I Realized (but will never, ever admit) that I Fucked Up After they Low Crowds in Disney World and Over-Estimated the Current Value Of the Star Wars Brand After Green-Lighting A Film Wherein All the Original Characters Left Were Bastardized and Shat On So Now Everyone Who Wants to Watch TV Will Have A 35% Chance of Being Assaulted By Our Incessant Ads for this Bullshit Because I Bought a Bunch of Shit with No Creative Vision in Mind and Am So Incompetent and Think So Lowly of My Own Customer Base that I Signed Off on a Plan for This Park that Didn’t Include Most of the ‘Immersive Experience’ as Advertised Because I Truly Believe Most Consumers are So Stupid That They Will not Notice or Care that They’ve Paid ~$400-$500 per Person to Get Access to a Glorified Shopping Mall with Extremely Overpriced Toys that You Can’t Even Use within Park Grounds” Iger will make sure these concepts are addressed via internal, philosophical dilemmas such as “What level of respect do we owe to our oppressors?” and “How much humanity should we offer to those who don’t offer us the same courtesy in return?” that were written and drawn by a couple of Jewish WWII-Veterans who had fought violently on enemy soil for their right to live and be seen as human and were, twenty years later, observing an uprising against a disturbingly similar “Separate but Equal” system that was reminiscent of the insidious and dehumanizing relegation of German Jewish communities into ghettos implemented early during the Nazi regime. I’m just feeling so fucking positive about this Fox acquisition guys, because I’m just so sure somebody whose very goal is to buy up all his competition and suppress even the most constructive of criticism is truly concerned about honestly and properly representing a title with so many counter-cultural and anti-establishmentarian ideals that aren’t already commonly accepted in today’s political climate, right? At least we get the X-Men in the MCU, right gamers?!?!?!?!!!!!!

Regardless of how you feel about Disney, you can’t deny that the company’s board atm is entirely creatively bankrupt and out of touch. For god’s sake, they created a hyper-realistic CGI remake of The Lion King that perfectly represents the state of the Disney Corporation today: bland, boring, forgettable, and completely lacking in any sort of creative vision.

[indigoire]

It Read-through Chapter Three: “Six Phone Calls”

God. One hundred pages into IT and I only just got done with chapter three. This book can and will kill me. 

Warning for racism, suicide, blood, gore, abuse, assault, misogyny, and Bill Denbrough’s shitty opinions.

Intro Chapters One and Two

Silly me thought, oh, twenty-four chapters, one thousand one hundred and thirty-eight pages, that’s about fifty pages per chapter, I can crank that out no problem. I was reading full novels over the course of a day when I was in school. Easy peasy. 

Real whoppers like this chapter have me doubting myself. I’ll probably have days where I’ll break the chapter in half just so I’m not reading for three straight hours like I was tonight. 

Anyways, on to the chapter itself. It’s really more like six chapters crammed into one, all introducing us to an individual Loser with the exception of Mike. 

Let me sum up my reaction to these intros with my own tweet, having just finished Bev’s introduction:

And like, I’ve seen the movies, I’ve read the fanworks, I know a lot of the lore. I even read past chapter three as a kid, I remember Bill’s intro so clearly now. I feel like I have my own form of amnesia, but the shitty memories I’m uncovering are of reading this book. So believe me when I say I knew going in that the Losers would be an amalgamation of mommy and daddy issues or just plain issues, anti-Semitism, misogyny, repression, trauma, long-buried PTSD, abuse…like, there’s a reason they’re Losers. 

But King feels like he needs to beat us over the head with this information. 

For example, let’s start with Stanley. Good old Stanley. Hey, did you know Stan was Jewish??? A simple mention wouldn’t be enough though, let’s throw every anti-Semitic word at the wall, but it’s okay because it’s from the viewpoint of a Jewish character, his wife. The Jewish wife can call herself a kike all day long, why not, let’s just go ahead and do that. 

Like. Come on Stephen. My notes say “at SOME point this just feels fuckin’ racist, dude.” 

Stan himself is lovely. We get to see him from Patty’s point of view (and, point of order, I just realized that all of the Losers are introduced from the viewpoint of another character, with the exception of Richie and Eddie), and Stan is a level-headed, smart, steady man. He seems to be “preternaturally confident” about his life choices, whether that’s choosing where Patty should apply to for work or starting his own accounting firm, and he always seems to find success. 

Stan also finds out about Bill and his books, but before the telephone call from Mike, before the Derry memories are supposed to rush in. Stan is reading Bill’s new book when he gets the call in fact. 

He also makes an oblique reference to the Turtle around Patty, “the Turtle couldn’t help us”, and then seems to shake it off without going into it with her. 

So. Either Stan remembered more than he let on, or something happened that made him aware. More aware than the rest of the Losers. Like, the Losers all seem to find wild success, supernatural success really, but to them it all seems to happen suddenly, at random. Not so with Stan. When Patty and Stan try to have children but can’t conceive, Stan says he knows the problem lies with him, he just doesn’t know why exactly. He then goes on to say that he’s in the eye of some storm, the calm between something terrible in his past and something terrible in his future. 

Of course we soon learn what terrible something is lurking in Stan’s future. One evening he gets a call from Mike Hanlon, telling him to come back to Derry. Stan answers the call, responds to Mike’s questions, then tells Patty he’s going to take a bath. She ends up watching TV a little too long, then realizes something is Off. She finds him locked in the bathroom with slit wrists and the word IT written in his own blood on the wall. 

The neighbors call the cops she screams so loud. 

We then move from Stan to Richie, whose name I have never been more happy to see in my whole life. Finally, finally, one of my favorite characters. Richie answers Mike’s phone call with nary a hiccup. He puts on a Voice to answer, not something silly but a sort of adult “everything’s going to be okay” Voice. He then arranges things with his travel agent and somewhere along the way he has to go back to his normal voice. “Now he had to go back to being himself, and that was hard–it got harder to do that every year.” Richie is building walls around parts of himself with his Voices, avoiding the real him. 

He does a couple of voices for the travel agent, she laughs hysterically, and he arranges his trip to Derry, and calls out of work. After it’s all taken care of, the memories start to rush back, the people, and he thinks of Georgie, with his arm ripped off, and then and only then does Richie vomit. He makes it to the toilet at least, but he empties himself entirely. He then removes his contacts. 

A rather short intro, but to me a nice reprieve. 

Ben’s intro is a lot better than I remember it being. I think I conflated it with his intro in the miniseries, where he brings home a girl and tells her about him being fat before they have sex. Here, not a whisper of that. There’s actually a bit where a woman asks Ben’s local bartender if Mister Hanscom is gay. “Mister Hanscom ain’t no sissy.” Cool. Thanks, Stephen. 

Basically, Ben haunts this one tiny bar in Nebraska in this tiny podunk “town”, where he gets to know the bartender, a Ricky Lee, very well over the years. He comes every Friday and Saturday night, no matter where he is. When he’s working on the BBC Communications Tower in London he still flies back home every Saturday to get his drinks. He never takes anyone home from the bar and he consistently tips well. The bartender enjoys his company. 

The night of the phone call, we see Ben head into the bar and there’s a terrible desolation hung over him. He tells Ricky there’s been bad news from home, and Ricky is sympathetic. He goes into some of the memories, of Bowers carving the H into his stomach, and shows Ricky the scar. He then orders a STEIN of whiskey, which Ricky, somewhat foolishly, gives to him, on the house. 

Ben then, mentioning an anecdote about the natives in Peru, snorts straight lemon juice and then downs the whiskey like beer. He then gives Ricky Lee three pure silver dollars that his father gave to him before he died. He makes mention of a fourth one that he gave to Bill…and a mysterious reference that Bill or Bev somehow used that silver dollar to save his life at some point. Meanwhile, Ricky is horrified. He keeps thinking of a bar patron that once hung himself after coming to the bar, and how Ben has the same look about him. He’s suddenly struck that Ben is dead, a dead man walking. 

But Ben walks out of the bar all the same, drives off, even while the waitress scolds Ricky for letting Ben drive, saying “he’ll kill himself”. And Ricky, who had thought the same thing not five minutes before says no he won’t. 

It’s a common through-line, the Losers being dead men (and woman) walking, everyone comments how scared they seem to be, how overwhelmed by fear, with the exception of Richie, who has no one with him, but Richie notes that he’s a dead man walking all the same. 

We move on to Eddie. In my notebook I wrote “EDDIE!!!” and immediately felt a renewed zeal to read. 

Eddie is introduced not by physical description but by what we find in his medicine cabinet. I couldn’t tell you the purpose of half of the items listed, a lot of them no longer exist, and as much as I’ve been busting out google for this book I wasn’t keen on looking up an entire pharmacy. I did note that one, there’s a lot of products for, as the book puts it, “moving the mail” (I wrote down “get the feeling Eds gets constipated a lot, needs more fiber in his diet”), and then I noted that Eddie also has some serious painkillers, along with some uppers and serious downers. You know a book was written in the eighties when “Quaaludes” gets name-dropped. 

I also wrote “Eddie is balding :C”, just so you know where my priorities lie. 

Of course we wouldn’t be able to talk about Eddie without mentioning Myra. Right after Eddie basically empties his medicine cabinet into his bag, Myra comes thundering up the stairs. Oh yeah, chalk down some good ol’ fatphobia from King. Literally every shitty character is fat in this book. 

Myra gets a bit of an interjection, though Eddie remains the central viewpoint for most of the chapter, and in her interjection she notes that she somewhat wants to trap Eddie (in the closet, jesus, very subtle) until “this madness had passed”. 

Eddie presses Myra into taking over for him in his driving business, and she hasn’t driven in years so she’s terrified, all while half trapped in his memories. He remembers his mom laying into his gym teacher for making Eddie take Phys. Ed. with asthma, but the teacher notes there’s nothing physically wrong with him. All the same, Eddie goes for his aspirator, takes a deep puff of it. 

He reflects that he knows how fucked up his marriage is, he knows he married his mother. Before he’d taken the plunge he’d placed a photo of Myra on the mantle next to his mother. He noted then that the two of them could be sisters. But he’d been weak and fallen into old habits. The jabs he could take, the jokes about Jack Sprat from his coworkers, but he really does seem ashamed of himself for taking the easier path, the one familiar to him. 

He truly cares for Myra if nothing else. He doesn’t want to hurt her in any way. Even semi-harsh words make him feel guilty and remorseful. He contemplates telling her everything, but it would only make her anxiety and distress worse. 

Also, two things of note: Eddie mentions that Myra “was really very sweet and had had even less experience with men than he’d had with women.” 👀 This and his pet-name for her, that makes her giggle to hear it, is “Marty.” I feel like this is far more telling of Eddie than the “marrying his mother” thing. He has affection for this woman, to be sure, but far more because she is safe, she doesn’t know much about men, she reminds him of familiar routines, she keeps him medicated and stable. He affectionately calls her a man’s name. 

And she? She wants to lock him in a closet to keep him safe and docile to her. 

As he leaves he briefly sees her transform (only for him, only mentally) into someone older, his mother back from the grave, “old and fat and crazy”, and a memory of his mother terrifying him in a shoe shop comes to mind. He shakes it off and asks her for a kiss, while saying to himself “if we were in water she’d drown us both.”

And then he flees to his taxi, on his way to the station and Derry. 

The next introduction is terrible. It made me so mad to read, I remember it disgusting me when I was kid, but it just infuriates me now. 

King’s only female protagonist, the only female in the Losers Club, Bev Marsh, is a walking punching bag. 

This part is told from the viewpoint of Tom Rogan, Bev’s husband, and he talks about how he got her under his thumb, how he could sense her vulnerability. And one, it reads like how every man assumes female abuse victims work, secretly wanting the abuse and having the choice to leave at any time but unable to, and two, it is some highly toxic misogynistic shit. And obviously it’s told from the viewpoint of a highly misogynistic character, an abuser through and through (who, by the way, is also fat, so there’s that fatphobia popping up again). 

But Tom knows that in times of extreme stress Bev is able to find her inner strength and push through. She becomes manic to do what she needs to do, and in those times Tom knows that his abuse wouldn’t be able to touch her. 

I filled up a quarter of a page with the words “FUCK TOM >:C” just so you know where my head was at as I read about him “teaching Bev a lesson” and beating her until she “learned”. He even knows that when he beats her she regresses back to being a child. A *gag* sexy child at that. His disgusting words, not mine. 

Of course Tom has parental issues of his own, of course! Match made in heaven. His mom beat him with a belt and he intends to do the same to Bev, put her in her place, give her a “whuppin’” as it’s phrased in the book. But Bev isn’t having any of that tonight. As Tom attempts to beat her for smoking and packing and daring to defy him, she fights back. She throws glass bottles at him and, as he gets more crazed, eventually tips the vanity on him. That isn’t even close to enough to keep him down though, so she snags the belt and whips him, first across the face, and then across the balls. Then and only then does he go down. 

She flees, shoeless and penniless into the night, and laughs once she realizes she’s out and probably out for good. My notes read “Tom can and will rot in hell.” 

Then my notes segue smoothly into “oh boy it’s Bill :|” and honestly, that could be the mood for the whole segment on Bill. 

Bill…Bill is so obviously Stephen King. Any time there’s a writer in a Stephen King novel you can bet that the writer is a stand-in for Stephen King. This is why it was amusing to me to have his cameo in It: Chapter Two roast Bill, his self-insert. I also should note that in the last chapter Adrian is noted to have been working on a long-languishing novel, and being in Derry inspired him, and just reading that made me groan. Not because I have anything against writers, lord knows, but because I know King included that detail to tie Adrian to himself and to Bill. I know it will come up later. I know King has to make every character him before he can empathize with them. 

Anyways, Bill gets the call from Mike all the way in England, where he’s staying in a cottage with his wife Audra. Beautiful, statuesque, red-haired Audra. “Why can’t you be the woman I want you to be” indeed. Not a line Bill says in the book by the way. At least not yet. 

Audra wants to know why Bill is shaking and why he pours himself a stiff drink before breakfast, so Bill begins filling her in on the details. And as he does we’re treated to memories of Bill in college, in his creative writing class. 

Now. Here is where I begin to lose patience with Bill and with King. King is clearly writing from experience. I know he had issues with his own college creative writing class. 

Basically, the class is pretentious, concerned with inserting political opinions into everything they write, going on about how war is sold by sexist capitalists and so on and you can just TELL that King is projecting hard. Bill’s works, fun sci-fi stories and mysteries, are given fairly low scores by the professor.

Then one day in class, during a period when another student is talking about her work, filled to the brim with socio-political commentary, Bill stands up and basically says that he doesn’t get what they’re talking about and “can’t you guys just let a story be a story?”

Which like, dude, okay, I get it on some level, this shit sounds pretentious as hell. But it’s COLLEGE. If you can’t get a chance to be pretentious in college then when else can you be? Also, you know for a fact that King is twisting this story to make himself look favorable, because it is clearly a story from his own past. So obviously the students have to be talking about buzzwords that have no meaning, instead of, oh I don’t know, expressing their political beliefs? Everything has politics in it dude! Even your shitty ass story reflects the political landscape of America in the eighties for fuck’s sake!! It, the novel, would not be what it is if it weren’t mired in politics. It has a lot to say about race, gender, and class, and if the message is muddled and directionless it’s only because the author, Mister King, didn’t put any thought into what he was trying to say, but rather wrote a story that was meant to shock. 

Anyways, Bill says the story thing, and it’s just the sort of malarky you would expect to see on the front page of r/braincels, with the top comment being “and then everyone clapped” because it is ridiculous. The teacher reprimands Bill, and Bill slinks out of class.

But OH BOY, Bill shows him! Because he writes his first horror story shortly after, and the story damn near pours out of him, and he brings it to class. The professor gives it an F and calls it pure pulp. 

Bill sells it for two hundred bucks to a shitty magazine, drops the class, and with the drop out note, well. I’ll let King take over here:

“Bill Denbrough staples the drop card to the assistant fiction editor’s congratulatory note and tacks both to the bulletin board on the creative-writing instructor’s door. In the corner of the bulletin board he sees an anti-war cartoon. And suddenly, as if moving of its own accord, his fingers pluck his pen from his breast pocket and across the cartoon he writes this: If fiction and politics ever really do become interchangeable, I’m going to kill myself, because I won’t know what else to do. You see, politics always change. Stories never do.”

“Bill Denbrough,” my notes read, “kill yourself.” 

The rest of the section continues with Bill falling into the lap of success with his stories, meeting Audra while working on a screen adaptation of his novel, the shoot going unnaturally well according to Audra, and his following years of success. He slowly fills Audra in on the blanks. His brother’s murder. His scars, from the Losers’ vow, which have suddenly reappeared on his hand after the phone call. How Stan was the one that cut their hands, before turning the glass on himself. How Stan at first mimes slashing his wrists, as a supposed goof, but Bill almost stops him all the same. 

He then realizes he can’t tell Audra everything about what went down in Derry, but makes her promise not to come with him, to stay away from Derry. His stutter, which has slowly crept back in over the course of the conversation, scares her into promising

““And when do I see you again?” she asked softly. He put an arm around her and held her tightly, but he never answered her question.”

With that, thus ends chapter three. 

This chapter took it out of me. It was all so familiar and yet all so new and horrible at the same time. I honestly can’t say I’m having a good time, but I’m certainly interested in what I’m reading. It’s like reading about a parasitic wasp, what it does to the host. It’s gruesome and disgusting, but you keep reading because you want to see the end result. But the fun’s only just beginning.

Catch you all tomorrow, bye for now.