#benign violations is where the good shit is at

[pedulum-chronometry]

You misunderstand.

Of course life is a scam. You get too little. You have too little control. It can be over far too quickly. Inequality is fact rather than idea. You must scrape and whiteknuckle it to get through. But what do you do with that information?

Will you dedicate yourself to fixing what unfairness you can? Will you channel your large and roiling feelings about it into art? Or will you spend what time you have cherishing the family (found or otherwise) and friends that you managed to find in this life?

What you choose to spend your time and energy on in this inherently unfair and brutal world is what gives meaning and weight to life.

Of course life’s a scam but that just means you get to scam life right back.

A scam, by definition, is about taking something from you without giving you enough in return or anything at all. So take stuff back or stop giving it so much.

Don’t want to adhere to some expectation or norm? Going to college, having kids, dressing normally, sleeping at night and being awake during the day? Then don’t. Fuck that shit!

Dress in period clothing when going grocery shopping. Get a night job. Adopt pets or plants.

Honestly one of the best things for my mental health was figuring out what made me happy and unapologetically pursuing that.

Find what things you can that bring you joy and pursue them. Chase that happy. It won’t fix everything but in an unfair world you’ve got to take what you can get with two hands and drop whatever doesn’t work for you. If you’re already here and don’t have much of a choice, you might as well enjoy the ride a bit more.

I think life is a scam, actually.

[popwasabi]

What “The Dark Knight” says about our bad politics

Waaay back in the summer of 2008, me and my dad drove up to Northern California to attend San Jose State University’s freshman orientation.

It was a long drawn out process where first-year students basically were told and shown a bunch of things they would forget and relearn by their first day anyways and culminated with all of us spending one night in the campus dorms so we could all get a taste of the “campus life” experience.

I wanted it to end badly for a couple reasons. Being an introvert, I was not comfortable sharing a room with anyone, let alone a stranger, for a night but more importantly, I was being kept from the biggest movie premiere of the year that day: “The Dark Knight.”

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I rushed my dad to find the nearest theater and purchased tickets immediately for a late-night screening. I was already a huge fan of “Batman Begins” but every trailer to Christopher Nolan’s epic follow-up indicated we were in for an even bigger blockbuster than before and I was beyond pumped.

(Me getting the fuck off campus to watch “The Dark Knight” that day.)

Two and a half hours later I left the theater blown away by the experience. “The Dark Knight” was everything, at the time, I was hoping for in a comic book movie; angsty, dark, edgy (all things I thought I was as a teen), cinematically sharp, thrilling, a fantastic score once again by the legendary Hans Zimmer, and fulfilled just about every fanboy wet dream I had at the time for a perfect Batman movie.

To this day it remains the most satisfying theatrical experience I’ve ever had seeing a movie, not that it’s my favorite movie of all-time anymore, mind you, but that I have never gone into a movie with such high expectations and had them blown away quite like that since.

(Conversely, this^ was my most disappointing experience...)

I’m a different person now, of course. If you were to wipe my memory of the film and had to watch it again today I doubt I would have the same fanboygasm I had then as the cynical 30-year-old I am now but I’ll argue that “The Dark knight” still remains a high mark, if not the standard, for comic book movies today.

That said, parts of this film have definitely not aged well. Visually the film still holds up, the action is still exciting, the performances are all stellar (though Bale’s Batman voice is still bad) but what hasn’t aged well, for me, are the movie’s politics.

“The Dark Knight” is, of course, a post 9/11 movie, in fact, it’s arguably the definitive one as its pop-cultural footprint dwarfs pretty much all within its sub-genre. This Nolan sequel deals heavily in themes of terrorism with its iconic villain The Joker, played maniacally by the late great Heath ledger, wreaking havoc across Gotham with various explosive devices. Though the Clown Prince is more an anarchist than someone with an ideology, like those in Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the results of his beliefs/non-beliefs are more or less the same; cause pandemonium and fear in the masses. Batman, representing the power of justice and order, does battle with this in a war to save Gotham’s soul and again this is still a damn entertaining and thrilling story.

(Seriously, it’s still a rock solid entry in the comic book movie genre.)

But where the film’s 9/11 politics become problematic is toward the end of the film when the Joker begins his final act to plunge Gotham into unstoppable chaos. Batman becomes desperate; The Joker has eluded him at every turn, always two steps ahead of him, escaping justice no matter what Bruce Wayne does so he concocts a plan to finally to locate and stop the Joker for good.

He creates an elaborate sonar system using every cell phone in Gotham, effectively creating a massive surveillance state to spy on its citizens in order to locate the Joker.

(And it’s the only time we have ever got the real Batman eyes on screen, damn it!)

Lucius Fox, played by Morgan Freeman, appropriately calls this out telling him he’s wrong and that he cannot support this but Batman insists that it’s the only way. Fox reluctantly agrees and tells him he’ll resign once this is over as he can’t morally support such a system. The sonar, of course, works and Batman is able to stop the Clown Prince once and for all and upon Fox entering his name into the sonar computer the program dissolves and is deleted presumably for good.

This is of course to wash Batman’s hands of this deed to the audience. Our protagonist knows this is wrong, the audience is told it is wrong but by ending the surveillance he shows he would never abuse such a program, that sometimes good men have to do terrible things to defeat evil and that makes it ok.

For years, as a bleeding heart liberal (at the time) who grew up in the Bush years but loved the hell out of this movie, I tried to reconcile with this part of the story because Batman was the hero. I thought maybe this kind of action is ok because if the “good guy” is in charge bad stuff is fine because he/she won’t abuse such power. That’s real justice, right?

The problem is in the real world, at the top, there really aren’t any good guys and they are counting on you to believe that they are when they get a hold of such power because that’s how we are programmed.

The Patriot Act, which was the signature Bush-era reform post 9/11, created our current surveillance state. In the interest of national security and ensuring those “dern turrists don’t go killing lil’ Timmy riding his tricycle out in Des Moines, Iowa” our elected leaders, both republican and democratic (make no mistake), effectively signed away our constitutional rights to “ensure our safety” by spying on us basically without warrants. The proponents proudly claimed its necessity in fighting the “War on Terrorism” and those naysayers either shouldn’t worry “if you have nothing to hide” or worse were un-American Taliban sympathizers.

For progressives, of course, this was an evil violation of our civil liberties but for many conservatives, this wasn’t a big deal. They are just trying to keep us safe after all. 

But conveniently ignored by many on the left still today is the complicity they had in bringing about this era in warrantless surveillance. Yes, this policy started under Bush, of course, but it continued to be re-upped through the Obama administration and the Trump administration, not to mention revolving majorities in the House and Senate, showing no matter who was in charge they all liked the idea of keeping an eye on all of us with or without reason.

Considering the Patriot Act was made to win the “War on Terrorism” our leaders were never going to relinquish this power anyways because you can’t win a war on terrorism. Terrorism is not a country or a people, it’s an ideology behind many different ideologies. The US, no matter how you see it, be it as liberators or oppressors, will always have enemies and that’s all the reason they need to keep this power it seems.

Having the data on our lives mined like oil can easily be used against us in a variety of ways regardless of if any of us have terroristic or even criminal intentions. But for many in this country, it was only a problem if the wrong guy wielded that power. As soon as their “good guy” got in though, suddenly it was no big deal. I wonder why...

“The Dark Knight” puts forth a problematic view on who can and should wield supreme power, that even terrible choices can be made as long as the “right” person is the one making them.

Liberals are notorious for justifying them when it’s one of them who does it.

It’s a lie. A lie that both parties use to their advantage because they want you believe everything they do can be justified because you happen to be a part of their party; the “good guys” once again. But there is something extra cynical about the way liberals wield it as they parade themselves around as paragons and moral pillars against the Jokers of the Republican party.

For all the platitudes liberals give, that would make some superhero speeches seem benign, they wear masks about as well as the vigilantes do but not for the same reasons. When confronted by this blatant hypocrisy, liberal voters justify all kinds of horrible things as long as the other “bad guy” isn’t the one doing it. For all the shit Bush gets, and rightfully so, for plunging us into a military, financial, and humanitarian quagmire in the Middle East, Obama gets almost zero real pushback by liberals for effectively drone bombing the hell out of the same people. During these past three years Trump has more or less allowed ICE to run rampant on immigrant communities sure and liberals have been critical, again as they should, but who made the cages they were thrown into and who deported more of them during his first three years in office than Trump did?

(And once again, and I can’t emphasize this enough, Andrew Cuomo is NOT your fucking friend...)

Liberals often like to present themselves as the moral purveyors of good in the face of conservative opposition and they use it to their advantage to more or less do many of the same foul things those with R’s next to their name do. Sure, not all their actions are equally as evil but even then, we rarely truly hold either of our leaders feet to the fire because we believe their actions are somehow better because they have a “D” next to their name.

These horrific policies and actions will never see justice as long as we keep justifying them because the “right” person is behind them.

No, this is not an all sides are equally bad take. That discussion requires more nuance and for a different time, but I will say both sides are varying degrees of bad that should be taken seriously instead of not at all and can’t be pushed aside again and again and again because “the other guys are worse.” 

We are running into the same situation today as our presidential election features a credibly accused rapist, sexual predator, who supports Bush-era tax cuts, who takes money from major corporate lobbyists, who is against Medicare for All, has open disdain for millenials, and not only supports but openly bragged about the aforementioned The Patriot Act.

Hmmm, sounds an awful lot like someone we know, huh?

You could argue that one of these two men mitigates, or even vastly mitigates, harm if in office and I’m not here to necessarily scold you for making what you feel is morally the least awful choice but the point still remains; we are justifying evil again because our “good guy” is in charge.

Being liberal, just on its own, does not vastly minimize the problematic nature of a bad person.

Regardless of how you feel about this election and what choice you plan to make this November (and again, I’m not here to tell you what to do), bad things and bad policies will be continued to be enacted by bad people because that’s what choices we’ve been given. There isn’t a good one and the most vulnerable will be hurt the most by it regardless of who wins. There is a reason so many are disillusioned with voting and it’s not just voter suppression laws.

I can already hear some of you screaming “OH MER GERD pURiTy TeStS,” but this is far more cynical a standard we have than simply choosing a less than perfect candidate. Many are already making rather tone-deaf comments about people being “privileged” for choosing not to compromise their morals anymore. What’s “privileged” is voting for the guy who will do less harm for you but ultimately still disproportionately harm more people of color no matter who is in office.  

(The country and the world can really begin to truly heal when a Democrat is in charge of one of these Freedom Machines once again!)

Yes, I might agree that one is probably a net positive for the world at this point but to act like someone choosing to not participate anymore in what is effectively a never-ending cycle I can’t say I blame them either. At some point, our society has to draw a real line in the sand on these things with our leaders and force a more moral standard for our government instead of the status quo.

We can’t go on this endless “pragmatic” path picking “the lesser of two evils” until we gradually just become evil. You can make the argument that maybe the time isn’t now, and you might be right but when? These folks at the top are COUNTING on us accepting circumstances and justifying terrible beliefs and actions over and over again because of the state of our politics.

“The Dark Knight” believes that sometimes bad things must be done to defeat evil but the real world can be so much less cynical if we stopped compromising on our beliefs. It’s not entirely too late for us to do the right thing. We can’t go on forever letting bad behavior go because the “good guy” will be the one doing it instead of the other one.

Taking money from corrupt billionaires is wrong. Extra-judicially drone bombing the Middle East endlessly is wrong. Throwing migrants in cages like fucking animals is wrong. Rape and sexual assault are wrong. Mass warrantless surveillance is wrong. Doesn’t matter if its Batman or fucking Superman doing any of these things; immoral behavior cannot and should not be ever justified.

Otherwise, we really will live long enough to see ourselves become the villain...

Looking forward to the comments on this one...

[scrawnydutchman]

Why Craig McCracken is a Genius

Anybody who follows my work as well as my most frequent postings and discussions knows that I LOVE animation. I sincerely and confidently say it is the greatest art form in the world, simply because in one way or another it’s every art form combined. It’s drawing, painting, acting, film making, special effects, literature and music all at the same time, and while cartoons get the unfortunate shove as being nothing more then non-intellectual “kid’s stuff”, the field has produced some of the finest achievements in art of the 20th century as well as the 21st so far. But much like any art form, the field is only as great as it’s artists and what they bring to the table. There are many great animators and animation directors that any enthusiast can point to for inspiration like Rebecca Sugar, Lauren Faust, Genndy Tartakovsky, Don Bluth, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki, Sitoshi Kun, and of course the most obvious answer Walt Disney. While I have great admiration and nothing but respect for the artists above, I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the genius of the man behind the shows I bring with me throughout my childhood and even adult life. The creator of such shows as Powerpuff Girls (which incidentally he collaborated with Faust and Tartakovsky on), Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Wander Over Yonder, Craig McCracken.

Make no mistake; there is a reason this man is so heavily respected and regarded in the current landscape of western animation, and you know a McCracken cartoon when you see them. But what exactly makes his work stand out? What is it about the cartoons McCracken has produced and directed that makes it so accessible to such a wide audience of kids and to an extent adults? How is it that whenever I put on an episode of Fosters or Wander Over Yonder I’m immediately put in a good mood and am enthusiastic about life? Well, after watching and studying his work I think I can boil it down to a few elements which, incidentally I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts before.

1. Beautifully Simple Character Design

Aesthetically speaking, what do the Powerpuff Girls, Bloo from Fosters Home and Wander all have in common? The answer of course is that they are deceptively simple designs that all take a very minimalist approach. So many household names from cartoons are memorable but their designs can often be so complex that if one were to try and draw them from memory, even as a skilled cartoonist, they’d have just enough trouble that they may forget a few key aspects of the design. With McCracken’s designs you can draw them likely in less then 2 minutes, especially ol’ Bloo from Fosters Home. You just draw a little pac man ghost with little flipper arms, circular eyes, a grin and a straight line at the bottom and you’re done. One might think these designs are very limited because of how minimalist they are with how you can express them, and if you’re feeling particularly like a snobby Jackass you might call it lazy. But in truth these design choices are the most practical you can get as they give you all the essentials of the character with nothing superfluous. First, because of how quickly you can draw them by that very nature they are also SEVERAL times easier to animate, and with the added aid of glorious modern day technology (when it’s not crashing that is) producing high quality entertainment quickly has never been easier. Second, all the essential parts of the character are there. Each character in a show is a distinctive shape not replicated by any other character, meaning that if you were to put them in a silhouette you could easily recognize who is who. Also, the whole art of animation is expressing character and personality through motion, which is where the acting part of the field comes in. Just by mannerisms, typical distinctive poses and even the very nature of their walk cycles we know exactly what kind of person each character from these shows is. We know the Powerpuff Girls are only innocent on the surface level and in truth are actually quite violent and gruesome (unless you’re watching the new horrendous show that completely misses the point of what makes the original so great), we know Bloo from Foster’s Home is a mischievous egotistical little trickster who is always causing trouble and we know Wander is a happy go lucky optimist who only seeks to bring happiness to all. Sometimes the best way to go is to not think too hard about it and let the main points of the character come through with no additions holding them down or distracting from the point.

2. Creative Yet Broad Show Premises

*This is my new favorite Gif*

I have to imagine each one of these shows had beautifully smooth pitches to get them funded (except maybe Powerpuff Girls because of the violence) because they have such imaginative and original premises that can be summed up so quickly to anyone who wants to watch and they leave themselves open to so many different types of stories.

*A boy visits his Imaginary Friend at a Foster Home where he and many other Imaginary Friends go on all sorts of hijinx or adventures, along the way saying goodbye to imaginary friends who find a new home*

or

*a superhero parody where a bunch of seemingly innocent and adorable little girls are actually quite violent and aggressive, and the show plays off of superhero stereotypes while also challenging typical gender roles*

Done. Great simple premise with unique concept not explored before. Take my money.

I’ve said before that it’s important for a show to have an easy to grasp premise, especially for children, because the easier it is to understand the more accessible it is to a larger audience. Plus because of the broad nature of the summary you can tell any kind of story you want between episodes. Premises like these  have story ideas that just write themselves; it’s why the family sitcom of middle class family with idiot father and hot overcompensating wife exist, because everyone can relate to having a family and the dichotomy of a couple where one is the straight man putting up with the ceaseless antics of the other. Wander Over Yonder is a  particularly good example of this because quite honestly all you need to know is “A couple of do-gooders wander the galaxy making new friends and incidentally run into an incompetent arch enemy a lot”. It’s basically just Road Runner but it takes place on a new planet every episode. 

3. Color!!!!

Craig McCracken KNOWS how to use color. It gives all of his shows such a warm inviting feeling because it’s all so bright and either blends nicely or makes decent contrast. This may seem like a minor point, but You’d be amazed how quickly a bad color palette can ruin a show for an audience. the color choices of these shows immediately attract the attention of the viewer with it’s positive vibes and satisfying placement. Plus each character has a color scheme appropriate to their personality (or more accurately they contrast, appropriating a common theme in McCracken’s work; polar opposites hanging out with each other). The goodhearted reasonable and well behaved Mac is red, but his mischievous trouble making fun loving imaginary friend Bloo is, well . . . . blue. The happy-go-lucky Wander is orange, but his logical and pragmatic best friend and steed Sylvia is blue. The leader Blossom is pink, the innocent Bubbles is baby blue and the tough tomboy Buttercup is green. They remain consistent with these choices and much like the contrast of these characters physical appearance it makes it all the more apparent that the characters themselves contrast too.I don’t know what else to say about it, but just TELL me you don’t watch the intro to Fosters Home and get all hyped up in the process!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZiB_S9VpiU

4. Surrealist Humor

One thing you’ll notice about these shows is that they aren’t afraid to be weird, Fosters especially. They take every chance they can get to have something surreal happen only to play it off moments later like it never happened. I think that’s always been a great strength of McCracken’s shows. A huge part of comedy is playing with expectations: nobody ever gets a laugh out of something predictable. But another great and common aspect of comedy is stark, jarring contrast. I once read a WONDERFUL book called The Humor Code by Joel Warner and Peter McGraw, that was all about studying what makes people laugh, and they brought up a theory in the book that comedy is all about violation + benign. Something is jarring to our senses but we quickly find out it’s actually nothing to be afraid of. Hence why being tickled by someone we love makes us laugh: it’s a violation of our personal space, but we know our loved one wouldn’t actually hurt us. But it wouldn’t be funny if we tickled ourselves because it’s not a violation, and it isn’t funny with someone you don’t trust tickles you because the violation isn’t benign. This can also happen in reverse: something that initially lowers our defences turns out to actually be harmful or annoying or bother us in some way. I’m not necessarily saying this is the be all and end all of comedy as it’s only a theory, but I think you could apply it to McCracken’s work. His cartoons are littered with moments where a character does something strange or random or out of the ordinary and nobody bats an eye, or maybe it’ll shift in perspective about how large the situation at hand is. An immediate example that comes to my mind is the episode of Wander where a planet is attacked on a huge scale by a destroyer of planets called “Buster” . . .which actually when you zoom out it turns out it’s an adorable little puppy just playing with a ball. Humor is largely subjective, but if you ask me . . that shit is funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ5QRrAosQo

Conclusion

McCracken

 has been making numerous contributions to the field of animation throughout his career and has gained notoriety for the shows under his belt . . and rightfully so. He understands pure and simple what cartoons are all about: simple, down to earth, easy to access entertainment that’s fun and leaves you in a good mood. Some television can be considered junk food like reality tv shows (cheap to produce, quick to make, advertised well but loaded with garbage), and others can be considered fruits and veggies like Breaking Bad or The Simpsons (they make you a better person and challenge your sensibilities), but sometimes all you really need is a light simple snack. One that’s colorful, sweet, and maybe even a little nutritious. McCracken delivers in his work with original premises, accessible characters, bright inviting colors and a delightfully weird sense of humor. God bless ya, Mr. McCracken!

[delusion-of-negation]

like, I don't mind fantasy (in fact I love vengeful characters, I have said it a million times but I think it's cool in fiction, I think it's fine to emotionally want it, to daydream about it, whatever, I just don't think it's the way these situations should be actually handled in reality, I think that does far more harm than help, and I think the kind of harm and help we're weighing up at that point are so extreme and abstract that we're really not equipped as a species to be acting quite so certain of what is "right"), I don't even mind cruel jokes - I've made every celebratory joke under the sun about thatcher, like, bitch is dead she physically cannot mind lmao. but I don't even think your "unless there's no way..." qualification is necessary, it literally isn't ever the only way. of course, sometimes in a flash decision when somebody is literally about to stab somebody else and you're there with a gun, you're often gonna shoot the stabber, but I don't think you're framing it right at all if that's the "it's morally okay to kill" that you're going for with that aside, because your phraseology is way off, as that's a snap decision not a genuine weighing up of risk. but also people are gonna extend a no-win snap decision to when you have time to think; framing it as "if you can't stop them any other way" means that if someone can twist "well kills mcgee just loves killin' and will never stop killin' unless we yeet him" they can put that under it as an "it's okay to death penalty kills mcgee" (kills mcgee isn't real btw nobody actually is a horror movie villain but people will assert that said people exist, and then that gets stretched to any serial killer, then to any killer, etc, and it all comes from that bullshit "you've given up your rights by violating another's" stuff, until eventually "hurt" is extended and stretched, and "can't stop them" is extended and stretched, and the situation doesn't resemble anything you'd actually intended to defend with that). I don't think people understand that even prison is kidnapping and torture, even the most benign rehabilitative prison will by definition still be kidnapping and lowkey psychological torture by virtue of said kidnapping and whatever you're doing to "care" for them (coercive control and emotional abuse, albeit with good intentions), and "to stop them hurting anyone" is something you're weighing against that already huge bar, and you're weighing things that by definition cannot be quantified and compared so you've gotta have a fucking hella rock solid argument for every case (so not imagining up kills mcgee and then shaming people who have different ideas as supporting kills mcgee, like the usual bullshit argument, or rapes mcgee, that's built on a shakey foundation only a few steps away from what you said about there being no other choice, a "necessary evil", a "for the greater good", and I disagree that it's the only option, but I've seen so many people who agree with me up to that point turn around and say that vigilante vengeance, mobs, even vigilante killings, are the better solution and my dude that's even worse what the fuck). like, sorry to rant and sorry the ranting is so all over the place (brain is dysfunctional at the best of times and it hasn't been the best of times for a long time), I'm just clarifying where I disagree with both your actual meaning and with the meaning people will extrapolate from what you said, or build upon, or whatever, because I think it's an important philosophical difference between my outlook these days and the outlook held by even people who agree with my opposition to the current justice system, and agree there's a myriad of problems with vigilante shit (and also where those overlap with the people who support one or both of those). and no system is perfect, I'm not here saying I have the zero crime system where nobody gets hurt, there isn't one, I do think my ideas are the most preventative and effective, but it's not like these things can go through clinical trials, there's no study on the effects of making things nicer.

personally, I don't support those snap decisions because "you did the right thing", because it wasn't the right thing, there was no right thing - I support those snap decisions because that's a shitty situation and I'm sorry anyone found themself in it, and the same goes for people who didn't/couldn't leap to help when that snap decision came up, that was a shitty situation and I support them because it sucks that they were put in that position at all. saying the "right thing" is to shoot has a lot of very unfair implications for that second group, to me they as much did "the right thing", in that it doesn't matter, it all sucked. then again, people might misread that as more condemning than it actually is (or even as me saying "there is a better solution if someone's about to be stabbed" which I'm not saying either, I'm saying I don't put morality into the equation at all, my focus is on helping people who were in shitty situations and on making a better world so less shitty situations happen to begin with), I don't even hardcore morally condemn murderers and don't see the value in doing so, I just want them to live normal happy lives - iirc statistically, even if not imprisoned, >99% will never kill again, and they mostly just need therapy for the trauma and a nice cup of hot chocolate and a blanky. there are ways to lower the repeat offending rate without needless kidnapping, so that would be where I'd spend money if I were the government. and I don't believe in libertarian free will (sam harris' book on the matter is great), and I don't think people are just these free agents doing whatever they want, and they just harm because... I guess bad souls? but I guess that's their fault and not something that would also be beyond their control? idk. either way, all that is dumb, people act because of prior shit, everything is cause and effect, and this need to hold everyone to account is fundamentally flawed based on how the mind and universe themselves work. we should simply help. that's all everyone needs and deserves, a nice life. I'm sick of this obsession with "are they BAD? did they do the BAD thing? what do they deserve?" like I don't care just give everyone blanky and hot choccy. and people go "you wouldn't feel that way if things happened to you!!" like bitch I'm king trauma of shit life mountain and I still want the people who hurt me to just live lives, I just want them to do so away from me; people just can't imagine you sticking to your principles when they think their emotions dictate what should happen to others, and they think I've "forgiven" and that's why I say this and shouldn't "speak for people who haven't", when really I also haven't, I'm hurt and angry and always will be, I just don't think that matters to the question of what should happen to them. so I suppose when I say that I think killing as a snap decision when someone is about to be stabbed is still not the "good ending" people are gonna put their own view of "good vs bad" in my mouth - what I mean is that it's still someone dead, it's still very possible you misjudged the situation or make things worse making that decision (you could end up shooting both of them, shooting someone you didn't know was behind them, etc), and weighing people's lives against each other to say the stabber dying is better than the stabbee dying opens up a big can of worms with a clear throughline to eugenics, and everyone involved is still traumatised and in need of help. I decided a while back to nope out of moralising games altogether. it's been going great for me until I see posts that are like "actually when shows tell you killing the bad guy makes you bad that's propaganda to keep you from killing those who deserve to die" and I'm hit by the realisation that y'all are still tryna find some inherent universal rules about "morality", which itself is poorly defined trash that people made up to sell gods and funny hats and shit. I'm like not even empathic either is the funny thing, I just think giving people blanky and hot choccy is the world I wanna live in.

I keep seeing the take that vigilante vengeance is actually fine and good (from people everywhere on the political compass) and it's like jfc guys maybe like go have some hot chocolate

[kalinara]

You know, it’s a credit to Dominic Purcell’s particular charm that I don’t really hate Mick Rory, even though he’s taking part in my least favorite story trope ever.

I call it the “Regina Mills effect”.  Though she was hardly the first character to use it.  Specifically it’s the “I’ve done some terrible things to you and now am trying to redeem myself.  However, you are not bending over backwards to acknowledge the one nice thing I’ve done for you and thus give me blanket forgiveness, so I’m going to betray you again.”

Because that’s basically what happened here.  Mick betrayed the team.  I don’t give a shit if you think that was the team’s fault ultimately, he still betrayed them.  And he took part in the ritual that violated their minds and bodies in essentially the same way that Rip had been violated earlier in the season, and the same way that he himself had been violated by the Time Masters.

And even if you grant that he thought he was just giving the spear to Leonard and didn’t anticipate the rest of that.  If we take Gideon at her word, he’s had a year to react to what he’d done.  And he didn’t take any measures to fix it until robbery stopped being fun for him.

I saw a lot of people angry at Mick getting punched.  But honestly?  Where is the anger for Nate and Ray, who had their identities rewritten?  It turned out to be fairly benign for them, but that’s still a pretty terrible violation.

Where is the anger for Martin, subjected to a year of terror and abuse, or Jax, rewritten to be an abusive monster to a man that he loves like family?

Where is the anger for Amaya or Sara, who spent the year explicitly in the same sort of terrible role as Rip or Chronos?  Look at Damien Darhk’s trophy cabinet!  Even if Sara and Amaya weren’t involved in all of those kills (from Darhk’s monologue, I assume he’d killed Laurel directly), a good number of those people were Sara’s friends.  

Where is the anger for Rip, who, though it was played for laughs, basically spent a year in solitary confinement aboard a near powerless ship?  Mick didn’t know the circumstances, but he did know that the man was missing entirely.

Mick didn’t just know about all of these fates (except Rip’s), he was complicit in them.  And he didn’t seem to care for an entire year.

But the team are supposed to immediately accept him back, just because he says he’s on their side again?

And look what happened as soon as they don’t give him that validation: he goes straight back to Snart.  Straight back to the people who’d been violating them for a year.  

Maybe I do hate Mick Rory after all.  Well, not really.  He is what he is.

The fans are another story though.  I wish it surprised me that the same people who went on about the team ignoring Mick’s deep motivational grief all season are ignoring the team’s understandable feelings of violation, anger, betrayal and distrust.  (I am rather surprised to see certain shippers so clearly prioritizing Mick’s feelings over Sara’s.  But that is what it is too, I suppose.)

I don’t know what kind of resolution I want for Mick Rory.  I did come out of Doomworld liking him again.  I want him to get a satisfying resolution.

But I don’t really think he’s a good person.  I don’t think he’s ever really been a good person.  He’s been helpful and useful, but that’s not the same as being morally good or even trustworthy.  At best, he’s the chaotic neutral teammate, and one with repeatedly shifting loyalties.

I suppose in the end, I think that if Mick’s unhappy with the team, then he shouldn’t stay in a place where he’s unhappy.  If he decides to stay with the team, that’s okay too.  But I don’t think he ever has the right to be upset that they don’t trust him again.  Three betrayals is really three times too many.

[madjohndriverlvbrx]

THE PROSECUTION OF JOHN MACHINE LOBER. A summary report of the FUCKERY. I was investigated by my past employer for revenge that he has a little dick and an ambiguous relationship with a female 19 years younger than he is, while she works at the bank and supports his cowboy lifestyle of a REPO MAN. This shit is intense... and real as a heart attack. On May 6, 2018 at 11am, a neighbor surrounded and confronted me in my driveway in a surprise attack on me. This neighbor is a professional harassment MOB, consisting of hundreds of associates and family members on the western United States. The neighbor made a fake 9-1-1 call that day, and perjured himself to the officer, who fell, for the lies, and charged me with a Felony and a strike, DEATH THREAT. I have been under surveillance by this MOB since 2009 when I was laid off by the female partner of the repossession company. I was denied unemployment, but knew secrets of their dishonest business practices, which included CALOSHA, and NO BUSINESS LICENSE from the city. I made a few FREE ADS FOR A PARAKEET on Craigslist with MOB's phone number, a benign gag. Not until 2016, when an unknown individual ambushed me and the female I had met on POF in her driveway in Menifee, did I research who exactly broke in and burglarized my apartment in 2009 while I was in Ireland. PUBLIC RECORDS and a comprehensive personal report from a licensed PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR are everything I needed to solve this shit-show harassment. I have survive 50 cold winters, yah, 50 cold winters. Those winters always gave way to spring. Every time spring arrived I thanked GOD, always believing I may just expire on my 50th birthday. And, observing in absolute astonishment that society became a fighter culture. I still do not want to believe that the word LOVE can be frivolously riddled of the end of a Lovers tongue without any substantial honor or understanding of the definition. Reposessors use a tactic called the DATE SCAM to fix the location of delinquent vehicles, because they really gotta get that money for exploiting your bad luck and inability to pay for the security contract with the bank. Real scum bags. Like a Bail Bondsman. Enter the PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. or, GATORS, as I call them. Real low life mutherfuc&ers, that have never accomplished a single achievement that is noteworthy, unless drugs and guns distribution count. My mind was blown at the boldness of the neighbor as he stalked, harassed, mocked me, and use proximity of our front doors to enlist local law enforcement contact on a daily schedule until one of them finally decided his campaign was legit. The neighbor used a civil harassment restraining order in Lieu of an arrest, and he was relentless. Cops are not bad guys at all, and many individuals just need an external force with the green light to impose deadly force for their immature and often ignorant actions, to remain civil. I am not as crazy as others actually perceive the 12 foot tall people eating MACHINE-MAN from Huntington Beach to be. Maybe, half is a fair assessment, but I am definitely not GUILTY of any crimes. An associate who claims to be a 1% outlaw motorcycle stunt man, also pulled of a sinister betrayal of intimate information to revenge me in 2007 with the restraining order. The kangaroo courts in the Badlands of Egypt, Inland Empire, are a good old boys club, with secret files that consist of a lie at every level, when prosecuting a TARGET. There is NO defense by a Civilian against Police Academy trained tactics, that include planting evidence, storytelling, and burglary, trespassing. All under the guise of a SECRET, and as they walk the THIN BLUE LINE, the malicious outcome of the crime leaves absolutely no evidence. I've been a TARGET since I exited the cage in Tulsa, Oklahoma in October 1996, because Ken, my coach, said, " John. You have a great big target on your back now." I've been under investigation since 8th grade, because I would go home for lunch with my best friend, and bully, Steve. My Dad told me. I had no idea, and still hadn't grasped what it meant, until recently. I've only been to jail for fighting, something I have done for 50 years. It's not a crime if it's mutual self defense. I have had so many toxic relationships with females that lie to themselves and believe I am a submissive, just because I am being considerate of their feelings. Every single one of them has been awarded a restraining order against me, and yet, I have NEVER BEEN in violation of any COURT ORDERED document. I have the utmost respect for authorities. I'm gonna change my middle name to "COMPLY." Here is where it gets crazy. It's difficult to sink my teeth into what I'm gonna explain, because MORAL TURPITUDE is a term I only recently discovered because of my research. The full-time haters, used a SKIP TRACER, and, information from my bitter wife, 5 states away, to FIND me in Menifee, California. I was dating, and single, and ended up with Lisa, at her home part time. Unknowing to me, the last three, for sure, women I had been pole vaulting the cup at midnight with, were plants from CYBERDATING. TINDER, FACEBOOK, AND PLENTY OF FISH. My dildo ex UDT Navy buddy, and associate, finally convinced me to log on, and basically lay my fresh pink hairy ballsack on the chopping block, and my hands were in still in my pocket. Hell, the First Lady I met, and picked up, with in the first three hours, was an off duty undercover LAPD Detective. 5 foot tall, double D's, and a dick hunger at 2:30am, that constituted a lewd act in the car, at the Queen Mary parking lot. She said, "don't worry." As she pulled her badge out. Yah. I'm only giving you the information that is visible to MY naked eye. As an over abundance of bizarre happenings begin to occur around me, on an increasing frequency, I begin to believe society has lost their shit, and MMA has brain fucked you all into a more aggressive, illogical little bitchness. Occurring on the daily, I'm driving UBER, and having a blast, selling my books, and then a douschbag will pick a fight with me at the car wash, or on the freeway. You name it. Set up accidents. Pursuits. Wild stuff. I started a YouTube channel with the footage because I didn't know exactly how it could be so well orchestrated and connected. It was eventually terminated because these full time haters were analyzing it forensically. They must of been furious, when normally they would be stoked to see the,selves get away with a crime right under the nose of authority. I was using green screen to put objects into their orifices and, well, humiliated them. When I was a Reposessor, I was able to cut keys, and literally steal your car without a trace. Standard operating procedure as an agent, required me to contact the records department of the local police station, prior to that, in case the owner called 9-1-1. A heads up, so no one was shot and killed. I could have abused that, and used it to be a criminal, in retrospect of these malicious haters. The harassment was so intense, as I would enter AM/PM to buy a drink, the vibe was like electricity on my body, as a large group of strangers, turning their heads toward me in synchronicity, like Crows on a power line, or a pack of teenage boys, BIRD DOGGING chicks, was so obvious, yet, but even easier to RATIONALIZE away, until the frequency has reached over two hundred days of this. When I discovered that the U.S. Navy enrolls every cadet in a HACKING class, so they can know when they are being SURVEILLANCED, did I realize that, they found me alright, then attempted to rope me in, set me up, and FIX me with an arrest, or better, get to put a bullet in my head, claiming self defense from a lethal weapon, because the day the neighbor finally made contact with me, normally, I would have annihilated his ass for his aggressive and disrespectful behavior. I recognized right away that he was baiting me, as if he was the Mayor, or the Supervisor of the County, or an Ex Undercover specially trained narcotics Deputy, fired from LAPD for planting drugs on other TARGETS in the past. (I found only one documented case, spelling it all out in an appeal for RAUL RODRIQUEZ V THE PEOPLE in 2005) He was convicted of a third strike, because this master blaster god damn punk actor planted a meth pipe on the guy. Okay, maybe he wasn't an outstanding citizen. But, So, The Office of the Community Policing Services(COPS.GOV), a DOJ newsletter has given the green light for innovative policing strategies, that in essence, VIOLATE HUMAN RIGHTS of the individual, and, is the birth of a new phenomenon, " GANGSTALKING, OR GANG STALK, OR, ORGANIZED MOB HARASSMENT, to just list a few." It's an occurrence defined by targeted individuals, without the knowledge of how the authorities operate, and how the HENCHMEN, that operate in the grey, marionette the puppets, in SECRET. A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, different from a Detective, does not possess the power to arrest. He requires a police officer, an officer of the court, aka the MINCER, or, a KANGAROO COURT, to witness the violation as it occurs, or has been given probable cause to issue a citation. Oh man, because once they finally obtain the citation, a mountain side of steps follow that up with vengeance. I was able to survive this campaign, free and at large, because of my ability to adapt, change up my conduct, and literally disengage, in my mind I was "invisible." It worked until judge Moss dissolved my restraining order against the neighbor. The only thing protecting me on the daily. Then a landslide of violations for proximity, having my headlights on at 2am when I got back to Lisa's house, and then, I was cited for speeding three times in twelve months. I haven't had a ticket in over ten years before that. I didn't know at first he owned three residences on her her all of a sudden, with ultra high def cyber security cameras, with a direct cell phone link to the warrior at the skip trace office, and in the palm of his hand. I suspect he also employed a DDI utility app for $70. All you need is the number of the device and the GPS signal s, well, you know the accuracy of GPS these days. They had to be bugging Lisa's house. When Marie from Santa Monica, a TINDER BINDER booty call, lost her temper with me and screamed out, "it's a DATE SCAM, you idiot," did I recognized the affiliation to the US Navy Special Warfare Department, and that they were actually activating my cell phone, and eating popcorn in the break room, mocking the size of my Penis, (I don't know... seems humiliating), how ugly, and fat Lisa is,(morbidly obese, not ugly) and.... Shit! Okay, this asshole neighbor activated an empty-shelled llc, SPUNK SPIRIT LOVE FORCE, and used his home address. Three doors from Lisa. So, in conclusion, and without boring everyone with the details of how I discovered the connections to the perpetrators, who are elite, and very highly skilled, and proficient at FUCKERY, I will just say this, "Even when you believe that you are finished with your past, it does not necessarily mean that YOUR past is finished with you. And, as a martial artist, you must walk with honor to grow in character daily, to battle the inevitable decay of legacy with the March of time, that only makes you a burden to others, fueling RESENTMENT, in their pathetic perception of you. So, good luck with your lifestyle. I will not make it any of my business, but, everyone of you soul suckers I helped out for no money, and are talking to an INQUIRY behind my back, and not letting me know, and, to the individuals that are in LOVE, believing a lie will never surface, or, that my own narcissistic behavior will get me two more strikes and an "L" in prison before that time, well, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but, I know better than to beat the Wookie." Thank you for your time. John Lober