#fractious

[doloresandfriendsandstuff]

@fractiouslemonofficial

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[knightofleo]

Angela Orosco Silent Hill 2

[piensalounpoco]

Human perception is frighteningly narrow. We think we've seen it all, when we've only seen a fraction...

La percepción humana es terriblemente estrecha. Creemos que lo hemos visto todo, cuando solo hemos visto una fracción...

[communist-ojou-sama]

can you imagine the us fully losing japan to china diplomatically. Having lived here as long as I have I wouldn't hold my breath but. very funny to imagine

[lemurious]

you. my godsdamned main character. behave. here is a plot for you to follow, pspsps? psppspspsps?

(character demands a digression because he has just decided to reminisce about some Important Event)

okay, please remember that you are still here, now walk into this alley, you will see the Secondary Character you need to meet.

(character demands another five paragraphs of him having a Problem and being Supported by yet another character with whom he will now enter a Situationship)

here, good, good, you two are talking, excellent, please keep going, now you have this important Strategy to construct and an Event to be an Unreliable Narrator about.

(character insists on inserting a few jokes of dubious quality and demands an entire backstory on the side)

okay! i will now go to sleep and get back to you tomorrow

(character makes Sad Eyes and demands to discuss his current emotional state, followed by a plot twist that has not been planned whatsoever. right. so now we are getting the Pure Magic of Getting a Fic Written Through Me)

(sleep has not happened, tomorrow is looking decidedly blurry.)

[thatswhatsushesaid]

What's your favorite dessert?

DEFINITELY pecan pie, a staple at any southern dinner table during the christmas holidays imho. also if you're ever wondering whether you've put enough sugar or butter into that custard, no you haven't, add more.

[sagaduwyrm]

Danny Phantom Idea: Monarchy Fraud

The ghost king isn't a real position, Pariah Dark just made it up and forced everyone to obey him. The Observants were some of the only ones to willingly agree to serve him as King. They use their ability to write magically binding contracts and their foresight to help Pariah conqueror everyone else in exchange for basically being his second in command(s). They were furious when he was deposed because they lost most of their power and prestige.

When Danny kicks Pariah’s ass they see their chance. The law of conquest is known and respected in the Infinite Realms, giving Danny a right to Pariah’s ‘throne’ and all his vassals. In fact, Pariah’s vassals have to ‘help’ him take the throne because of the magical contracts Pariah forced everyone he conquered to sign. And once he’s on the throne, well. He’s a kid. The Observants would be well within their rights to declare themselves his regents. And by the time he grows up, they're sure to have figured something out.

Danny is trapped in a race against time to break all the old fealty oaths and permanently free everyone from the Observants while his closest allies and most hated enemies alike try to forcefully coronate him.

[wordsandrobots]

Right. Again, not intending this blog to offer advice on the regular but I think a bit of basic analysis guidance is on theme. So:

If a text does not target its criticisms towards the profit motive and private ownership of the means of production, it is not meaningfully critiquing capitalism.

Capitalism is not 'there are rich and poor' or 'greed is bad', or even 'money motivates people to act'. These existed prior to the capitalistic revolution and could very well endure under any successor systems. A text that deals with them alone -- without targeting the way the pursuit of profit *specifically* leads to distorted social priorities (like running healthcare as if it should generate more money than is put in) and how this manifests when things everyone on the planet needs are controlled by individuals -- is not making an effective argument against the economic arrangement currently buggering us all six ways to Sunday.

This is especially important to bear in mind if dire consequences are presented as a result of 'human greed', because doing so abstracts the problem away from its technical causes, which is one of the key ways capitalism diverts attention from its flaws. If the issue is merely people being 'greedy', then we just need to operate with more checks and balances. No need to tackle the core concept of a system geared to maximise profit over everything else . In fact, maybe capitalism is simply an extension of human nature and therefore *can't* be changed. Isn't it comforting, to know this is just what we're like?

(Urgh, what's the keyboard equivalent of washing your mouth out?)

A story isn't doing anything wrong if it does not concern itself with capitalism as a system. Heck, there's not anything wrong with grappling with the question of greed in general, because that is indeed something we need to grapple with: what does it mean, how does it work, how can we best mitigate it and the other worst aspects of ourselves? Many stories do exactly this while clothed in the aesthetics of capitalism and its many, many horrible outcomes.

But aesthetics are not an argument. And getting mad about social inequality and wars ignited by the whims of the rich is not the same as zeroing in on capitalism as the major cause or catalyst. It is in fact quite common to hate all the consequences of private ownership and the profit motive while still believing those things in and of themselves are neutral, normal ways of organising the world. This filters into fiction, producing ultimately toothless attacks on 'big business' or 'corporate greed' or even just the insidious idea that if we put the right people in charge of the system, everything will be OK.

(I cannot think of a better example than the first Iron Man movie, an almost pathologically deflective piece of cinema.)

Take the time to consciously read fiction through a capitalistic lens! Pick apart how it reflects the world at the point the story was written! Ask how the author approaches the issues they raise!

At the same time, avoid crediting them with an argument they aren't making. Identify what they actually say above all else and check it against the definition of the things they evoke. Only then will you be on solid ground to state whether or not they are attacking capitalism.

To beat a favourite drum, words have meaning. That matters quite a lot when talking about the meaning of a story.

This has been me vague-posting at the entire Gundam fandom. You're generally lovely but I do occasionally feel the strong urge to start pelting you with dictionaries, and burying this point in an essay about McGillis Fareed was apparently not enough to sate my need to grumble about it (c.f. section A digression into narratives about capitalism).

Thank you for your time. I shall be standing by the position that Iron-Blooded Orphans is the only solid critique of capitalism the franchise has produced (as a subset of exploring exploitation in general) until further notice.

[xbasement-baitx]

Besties my first day back to work this week we have a fuckin river otter coming in!!

[ask-the-toy-box]

Today, despite the lemon head, he is being an asparagus

[wootzel-dragon]

I didn't have time to take pictures of her shenanigans, so I just had to draw them instead. This poor orange girl does not learn from her mistakes.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

syria was already pretty bad but without assad i think we can expect things to get much worse.

[mumblelard]

chewink or i want to see the savannah bananas and the fitzgerald chicken and eat ribs from a parking lot smoker and i want to fall asleep on a quilt spread out under a live oak after a picnic with a girl in a sundress

[caesarsaladinn]

the caucasus is like honorary balkans in my mind, as a region that was fucked over first by byzantines, then ottomans, and then soviets, has a tense mix of islam and orthodox christianity, and is filled with a lot of fairly small but extremely fractious ethnicities whose wars tend to get forgotten by most of the world

[sleepywinchesters]

It's 10am. I should really get up and do stuff. Buy I did 4 straight hours of algebra last night and may have irreversibly broken my brain

[rickybaby]

https://x.com/toiletdinosaur/status/1753302901345362225?s=46&t=4uvR9bJ_cC8K4wWbdclEGg

https://x.com/adonustikuy/status/1753382051913372066?s=46&t=4uvR9bJ_cC8K4wWbdclEGg

Yuki girlies pls we can be friends 😭😭😂 honestly the rage some of them feel towards is interesting. Yuki is bopping about Rome let him chill before he has to do a seat fit

(Link, link)

Honestly I get them, because there was a time in 2022 when I felt anything that McLaren did was a purposeful strategy to exclude Daniel and I think with all the hype surrounding Daniel and him being the one to supposedly attract the new sponsors, they’re justified in feeling that way even when there’s a logical reason why the new team hasn’t posted Yuki because he simply hasn’t had seat fit yet