#citizenry

[jesusworesandals]

[fuzz-hound]

I want Games Workshop to acknowledge that Necromunda exists more.

So often, GW (Games Workshop) goes straight where the money is. Where are people spending their money? On Space Marines, of course. It's the poster boy of the franchise, so the number one thing that they're gonna do is make as many space marines as they can because it's essentially guaranteed revenue for the company. Every noob to the 40k franchise wants a space marine army. It's just how it goes.

The problem I have is that within the franchise, there's so much more they can do with it than just the most powerful guys in the galaxy. rather than make the biggest, baddest guy in the room the posterboy, the citizenry of the imperium should take center stage to really introduce people to the universe, and to make neofascists understand that THIS IS NOT FOR THEM.

The problem with Space Marines is that they already know everything. They study up on all the enemies of the Imperium, which means a lot of the mystique of the factions is lost. Save for the Tyranids, of course, because they’re from another galaxy so nobody *really* knows what their deal is. If you are introduced to 40K by getting to know a bunch of Mary Sues like the Ultramarines, you wouldn't be remiss for thinking that humanity wins all of the time.

That statement couldn't be further from the truth.

In %80 of battles, wars, and any other conflict in the Imperium, people are fighting tooth and nail for inches of the battlefield, often with catastrophic losses on both sides because of just how desperate and how pissed the factions are at each other. This is one of the main messages that 40k as a whole is directly screaming into people's faces: War Has No Winners. What better way to introduce people to the concept who look at the battles and cant see that about the universe than looking at it from the perspectives of people who are practically destined from birth to lose?

Under the crushing power of the Imperium, scuttling around the piles of garbage, among all the soot and shit and piss and rust that EVERYONE generates; what are their little victories that help them to live another day in the Underhive? What keeps them from driving themselves to drink in a place where it's likely they've never even heard of the Sun before? In a world without hope, what gives them life?

This applies to whatever Cavill's cinematic project is in the universe as well. In order to make people understand that the viewpoint of the protagonist is bad, we have to start small. Dumping an audience in a place where there is practically infinite scale makes it meaningless, and kills off any serious stakes. A Necromunda story is the perfect starting point for people who have no Idea what the word 'grimdark' even means and by keeping it "small", we have a baseline for just how huge everything is.

I just want more Necromunda books, videogames, ANYTHING BUT THE TABLETOP GAME, man! There is SO much potential there for stories that are more than "I am the Big Gun Man!" Gang wars are happening all the time, High society intrigue, Smuggling and illicit stuff?! People love that mafia shit!

[milkydraws8]

various eldruci

[1five1two]

[evilhorse]

And who says citizenry anymore?

[gravitascivics]

ROMANTIC LIBERALISM

This blog introduced to its readers the work of Adam Gopnik back in January 2020.[1]  His book, A Thousand Small Sanities,[2] gives, early in its text, a history lesson of how “liberalism,” as a political form of thinking, got started.  He traces the roles that John Stuart Mill and his intimate partner, Harriet Taylor, played.  Skipping their adulterous relationship, their interchange in terms of basic political discourse led to a more formal construct about what political speech and behavior should be and became known as liberalism.

          More specifically, along with a strong stand against slavery back in the 1860s, they also advanced ideals such as claiming the equality between the sexes, i.e., that women were entitled to equal standing in society – including the right to vote.  While racial emancipation was a more accepted ideal at that time, this couple were among the initial advocates for women’s rights and for extending to them the franchise.  And before one ascribes to them the title of extremists or radicals of their time or of some ideology, Gopnik claims they were centrists.

          Gopnik shares the following:

What they were was realists – radicals of the real, determined to live in the world even as they altered it.  Not reluctant realists, but romantic realists.  They were shocked and delighted at how quickly women and men began to meet and organize on the theme of women’s emancipation, but they accepted that progress would be slow and uncertain and sometimes backward facing.  They did more than accept this necessity.  They rejoiced in it because they understood that without a process of public argument and debate, of social action moved from below, the ground of women’s emancipation would never be fully owned by women nor accepted, even grudgingly, by men.[3]

And how does this concern relate to federation theory, the topic of this blog?  It helps explain how the national – in this case, the British – partnership truly expanded as this newer stream of argument, liberalism, took hold among change agents of those years.

            Perhaps, as Gopnik suggests, their personal romance played a functional role in their thinking over the issue of emancipation and extending the franchise.  They introduced, on a more conscious level, the romantic element of how fellow citizens should, according to their view, engender a more useful mode of thinking and feeling. 

And what one might at first blush consider contradictory, if one’s views of others is based on some level of love, how one views them “jives” with liberty.  That is, it simultaneously beckons people to be themselves but also to be concerned with and to take care of how one is seen by others.  Moreover, this leads to a very essential dispositive stance in a federated arrangement of a partnership; that is, to be disposed to compromise. 

“Compromise is not a sign of the collapse of one’s moral conscience.  It is a sign of its strength, for there is nothing more necessary to a moral conscience than a recognition that other people have one, too.”[4]  It’s a sense which ties legitimate disagreements beyond the competing interests under debate.  And in that, one can envision a sense of liberty removed from the natural rights – “I can do what I want as long as I don’t deprive others of the same right” – view. 

For as with this more federated view, one is removed from this unattached individualism that the natural rights view promotes.  How?  It is tied to a view of liberty that acknowledges the obligations and duties true love demands.  Yes, this sense of limitation is not mandated by law, but by emotional ties, that loving relationships entail.

Gopnik leaves his readers with an analogy that this blogger wants to share, for it is a bit unexpected.  That is:

Most political visions are unicorns, perfect imaginary creatures we chase and will never find.  Liberalism is a rhinoceros.  It’s hard to love.  It’s funny to look at.  It isn’t pretty but it’s a completely successful animal.  A rhino can overturn an SUV and – go to YouTube – run it right over, horn out.[5]

And with that comparison, this posting sets up the next one; it will look at some of the implications from Mill and Taylor’s thoughts.

[1] Robert Gutierrez, “Turn Left,” a posting, Gravitas:  A Voice for Civics, a blog, accessed December 30, 2023, URL:  https://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/2020_01_19_archive.html.

[2] Adam Gopnik, A Thousand Small Sanities:  The Moral Adventures of Liberalism (New York, NY:  Basic, 2019).

[3] Ibid., 11.

[4] Ibid., 12.

[5] Ibid., 13.

[idealog]

I Shall Now Live in Peace and Harmony. If you continue to affront it, you are not welcome in my Realm, or around me or Mine, including My Peace and Harmony.

Thanks,

JESUS

[kesarijournal]

The Irony of Fighting Misinformation with Muzzles: A Witty Take on ACMA's New Powers

Hello, dear readers! Today, we’re going to dive into the rabbit hole of misinformation, disinformation, and the Australian government’s latest attempt to play the role of the White Rabbit, trying to bring order to the information Wonderland. Buckle up because it’s going to be a wild ride!The Australian government, in its infinite wisdom, has proposed to grant new powers to the Australian…

[bunabi]

The Imperial Chantry says ancient elves created blood magic and Solas corroborates this by having experienced opinions on the topic

But the first priest of Dumat says he learned that shit direct from the Big Man himself and he's credited as the first blood mage in history

All I'm saying is: either somebody lying or something going on

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

was thinking it might be time to reread william j. reese's america's public schools: from the common era to "no child left behind" & flipping through the highlights i'd left in it i found this, which did make me laugh:

Critics in the late nineteenth century frequently complained that schools were not as rigorous as when they had attended school. Employers often said that prospective workers were lazy, could not spell, and wrote illegible, garbled prose.

[benevolenterrancy]

torchwood is very lax about uniforms compared to certain other alien monitoring groups

[a-really-bad-decision]

So funny to me when boe calls adepts 'wizards' (derogatory). Like they’re not even wrong, it just doesn’t begin to cover the whole *gestures vaguely at the waking nightmare that is the nine houses' standing army.*

I hear wizard, and the first thing I think is not ‘shock troopers who can suffocate you in putrid, pulsating globs of boiling fat pulled from the mangled remains of your dead comrades’. Or ‘soldiers who you definitely blew up a month ago appearing back on the battlefield with their organs regrown and and a functioning bone arm taped on where the missing limb should be’. Or ‘conquerors who arrived in a space ship powered by an obelisk covered with the ancient script of the unrestful dead and bathed constantly in fresh arterial blood while literal skeletons crawl over the hull like weevils’.

Fucking wizards. Love it. Keep being irreverent you crazy bastards.

[laguzmage]

See on the one hand this is like the third us presidential election I've seen since becoming politically conscious that's had an "If Republicans win they have a 10 point plan to enact religious fascism, for real" scare but on the other it's really killing me how every single Project 2025 line that gets out on socials is like "And then we will activate the national guard to sweep for wokeoids and gays" and we're all standing around like haha yeah idk if voting even matters anymore

[orkneyism]

AITA for throwing a spring party for myself (25F) and my friends (My Loyal Subjects) on the anniversary of my husband's (28M) mass killing of infants? It's also the birthdays of my oldest nephew-in-law and friend (24M) and my youngest nephew (8M) who survived the said massacre attempt?

[demi-pixellated]

Freij

Freije Known for their fringed ears, thick dark hair, and natural resistance the frigid temperatures of the north. Freije seals take on a white or pale-blue hue, contrasting against their dark skin. Typically asymmetrical and unique to each individual, they have been widely (and fittingly) remarked as resembling snowflakes and frost, consisting of radial pattern of crystal-like markings.

Matriar The military and naval prowess of Freij is recognized across Elothia, and its Matriar reflects that. As Leader and Admiral, She dons the military vestments of the region, although ornamented and embroidered to indicated Her regal station. She also carries on Her person, just as the officers under Her, a dagger and sabre. Typically these would be highly decorated commissioned works, much like Her chokha and kalpak. However the current Matriar has forgone the tradition, preferring to don and wield the standard arms of her men. As Impero recently saw a Patris leave the throne, Freij is likely to see one on theirs in the coming centuries as the current Matriar has only one son and seemingly no interest in bearing another child.

Czars State officials and Generals to Her Majesty. Much like the Matriar, Czars are outfitted in military garb and keep a dagger and sabre on their person. While still decorated to denote them as officers of import, it is not to the level of the Matriar.

Citizens Despite the high tolerance to the northern climate that they have become known for, Freije are born incredibly susceptible to the cold. Newborns are heavily swaddled in thick furs and kept indoors for the most of their first year. Even when younglings are finally able to be brought outdoors, they do so thoroughly bundled up, almost comically, in several layers of thick clothing and furs.

It's not until adolescense that the Freije's cold tolerance truly begin to build up. They begin to strip away their heavy coats, scarves and furs, and many, many, layers as the years proceed, and by their first century the typical Freije can brush off the low temperatures with far lighter apparel. To the outsider experiencing the bite of Freij's Spring chill for the first time, they may even look underdressed.

In opposition to this are the region's wealthier merchants, barons, and city officials. Setting themselves up at higher altitudes, far above the crowded docks and fish markets, even their natural resistance isn't quite enough to keep out the colder mountain winds. As a result, upper class Draken remain relatively bundled up well after maturing - a fact that's earned the ridicule of many common folk, thinking it make them look childish.

[legionofpotatoes]

recently revisited our animal crossing island after a very, very long break 🫠