#but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater

[communist-hatsunemiku]

I actually got an ask today about whether or not Miku has a soul. And tbh it was worded in kind of an annoying way so I deleted it. Sorry to that person.

And like, I'm not sure I can answer the question "does Miku have a soul?". If anything, She has one and humans don't. But that's not quite right either, and I kind of want to throw the whole thing out, I want that baby gone along with the bathwater

[exclamaquest]

Bitch the brain is meat that conducts electricity let's stop mystifying it and go learn some science

[somegrumpynerd]

Carefully googling the origins of a phrase before I use it in writing so I don't accidentally make a character british against their will

[rmbunnie]

I am alone on this barren earth (Jason Todd liker and Mia Dearden liker who honestly thinks issues 69-72 of the 2001 Green Arrow run are fun and good and would really like to talk about them beyond "Jason Todd was ooc and irredeemable there because he was trauma-dumping on Mia but also everything he said was fake and made up and he was manipulating her to become his sidekick and he blew up her school in retaliation because she didn't so really we should ignore the whole comic as bad writing /or agree he should just be read as an sadistic sidekick killer" (None of which is true and over half of which is directly stated to be false in the comic's text) but all people ever have to say about the comic is weird wrong takes about the three pages in which the gym fight happens ripped out of the very interesting and fun surrounding context)

[chaos-has-theories]

I am generally known as a nice and gentle person. I like being kind. It comes naturally, it makes me happy, etc etc.

I am a nice person.

Except when I'm tidying my parents' house, at which point I am instantly transformed into a petty bitch.

[vvelegrin]

incredible how people kneejerk so hard past a potentially valid point into being jerks about the idea of there being disabled people with different needs

[bisexualgenderfemme]

don't love that that 'butch' book list is reccing jack halberstam & not offering any context or critiques of his conception of butches being almost entirely tied to ftm & basically entirely removed from mtf. how does one write a whole book on 'female masculinities' & not include trans women?? how does not analyzing the transmisoginy & the ways trans women are oppressed for their "female masculinities" not help explain & find solidarity with cis women & trans mascs.... I wish we could acknowledge the failings of the butchfemmes who came before us, the transmisoginy some ppl worked under, were forced under, while still learning ab our community over all. not just one or the other...

like. op didn't offer any commentary on any of the works, so maybe it'd b weird if it was just on this one. & I haven't read every book on the list. it's just... a personally recommended list... & also. no one in the tags or notes saying anything :\\

plus there's always the "it speaks volumes (tho not to op just to the community at large) that we can find many famous articles & academics on trans butches who push transfem butches to the side or argue them as "male masculinity" or third genders them but we can find no transfem butch academics :<" angle...

[harpielady]

self improvement content for women really fucks me off because it always equates excessive grooming and beauty with personal growth

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

:/

[soysaucevictim]

Given the foreword to this interesting video... yeah.

It seems that E/M/D/R is just an overwrought protocol to deliberately stim to ground and direct attention away from disturbing traumatic thoughts. (Grounding is all about practicing healthy detachment and pull you out of your head.)

The whole "it's easier to give your attention to something else than it is to stop thinking about Thing."

Frankly, I don't think the EM part is particularly a special activity - any repetitive stimulation could soothe/mitigate symptoms. (Not outright resolve the underlying issues.)

-

Okay. Some commenter using the phrase "very memory based traumatic incidents" basically said nothing really.

So there's like just having an acute trauma response. Frankly something EVERYONE will experience eventually. Usually a death of a loved one because Death Is Like That. But also accidents and health crises Because Shit Happens.

The difference between THAT experience and (C-)PTSD is how that experience STAYS with you in a way that's significantly impacting your life. And one of the friggin' diagnostic criteria? Memory problems. Disturbing flashbulbs? Check. Dissociative amnesia (what I like to call Swiss-cheese memory)? Also, check.

I just- this person just regurgitated the byline of this treatment "being effective for PTSD" without actually saying PTSD. :I

[michals]

"media can only be as progressive as the time it is created in", I wish more people understood that and met media where it is instead of immediately going into it in bad faith.

[freedomisforall]

Just because you're disappointed in your democracy doesn't mean you rush into the arms of dictatorship.

It can get so much worse.

[krawdad]

I hope my skeleton isn't too fucked for roller coasters

[thedarklyblue]

he's so all or nothing jesus fuck

[markrosewater]

Hey, Mark, I'm not to make another UB-related request. This isn't coming from an anti-UB place, and it's just one Goose's opinion, but I'm sure there are others who feel this way.

Can we get rid of flavor words, please? I haven't seen a single upside to them presented, just downsides:

For decades, one of MtG's biggest strengths was capturing the ludonarrative. Having to spell it out makes it seem like you all have lost confidence in your ability to make card design that makes sense with the captured flavor.

If a design is intended to be funny (the Street Fighter cards come to mind), it feels like you're pointing at the "joke" and saying "See? Please laugh." As a person who has a comedy background, I'm sure you understand why killing the frog is bad.

Death of the epithet: The most minor of the criticisms, but I really think "Ian Chester, Science Teacher" reads better than "Ian Chester" and then calling his ability "science teacher." (I may be mixing up the WHO teachers, but this applies to both, luckily.) Epithets also make it easier to depict multiple "moments" of a character without giving a card up as the "definitive" version of that character.

It feels like you don't trust players to get why the card text is what it is. Telling your audience you don't expect them to be smart (or rather, literate) enough to "get" it doesn't really help. I've seen people say they add flavor to the cards, but the flavor isn't diminished by removing the flavor words (flavor is when things are fleshed out and living, not when things are spelled out). If it's for fans of the IP, then they already get it (Oh, the activated ability that grants flying is referencing this character's rocket propulsion). Non-fans of the IP aren't benefited either, as they will sus out said character has rocket propulsion or be left completely in the dark (see Cult of Skaro: These words do nothing to tell me about the ability. If you were to leave them out, I'd still be able to sus out that each ability corresponds to one of the four Daleks depicted).

Lastly, they make cards harder to read. When trying to grok a card, there should be as few words as possible I'm supposed to ignore.

I understand some people will go "I recognize the thing" and a bulb in their brain will light up, but something being easy like this doesn't mean it's better or that we actually like it more.

I guess there's the potential upside that you could slot in numerals to power up my Baron von Count deck, but I don't see any real tangible upside to them. Obviously I'm missing something. Can you say what it is?

(Also, even if you don't answer it,thank you for taking the time to answer this book of an ask. These are feelings I've been sitting on since AFR and keeping an open mind on in case I changed how I felt from my initial reaction.)

Flavor words can do some things that we can't replicate elsewhere. I agree they can be overused, and are not always used optimally, but I don't think we want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

[klapollo]

I'm going to be honest. I really hate how the discussion has become "all AI is bad all the time always" and not "how can we regulate and improve AI in a way that will benefit people, not exploit them, and improve the world with a potentially useful technology that we can educate people on"

It just seems so defeatist to throw the baby out with the bathwater like this. Yes, as is typical under capitalism, AI has so far been used to some truly horrific ends. But, It also has the potential to do truly great things for people in a wide variety of ways. Why are we not fighting for an AI that is ethical, helpful, regulated, and understood by people so as not to be deceived by it? I don't want to stop the march of technological advancement, I want it to work for the benefit of people collectively and not just be exploited by corporations who want to hurt them. It's easy to see AI as completely bad when it's mostly been used for bad things, but there is a limitless amount of things we could do for people with this technology if we truly fought for it to be used ethically.