#i think it's a broader problem

[emoclone]

i am having such a "i have to do everything my god damn self on this campus" moment rn

i have one person helping me and i appreciate them a lot, for real, but also we are only two people 😭

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Is there anything more weak than the attempt to shut down all media analysis and critique by appealing to a "everything is valid and different! Stop making it a pissing match," point of view? Either the stories are "too different" to compare and contrast, or they're "ultimately all fma so why should we fight". Maybe some people can't get it through their heads, but disagreement, venting amongst those who feel similarly, and critique are not inherently a fight.

And I'm sorry, but "breaking the cycle of violence" is a shit trope to tack onto a plot that uses a genocide and ethnic cleansing as its foundation, with heaping layers of "those poor little war criminals, stop being mean to them" to add insult to bad storytelling.

[mathlann]

Marazhai and Yremeryss make me insane and will probably continue to in ways I can probably talk incomprehensively about forever but this:

Has been rotating in my brain for awhile now just for the implications of what it says about "family honor" as Drukhari may have it, and how it conflicts with rank. Marazhai seems to argue his being wronged on the basis of Yremeryss disregarding what he is owed as her brother. At least from how he talks about his mother and some of his other dialogues about Yremeryss, there's a measure at which sibling loyalty matters against other Drukhari. As he says,"only an Aezyrraesh has the right to take the life of an Aezyrraesh." Therefore, Yremeryss tossing Marazhai in the Chasm to die as arena meat is a sign of grave disrespect. But by that same measure, Yremeryss is Archon of the Reaving Tempest and as long as she sits in the chair, her word is law. Marazhai is refusing to be a proper subordinate in the way his Archon demands by refusing to get out of her way once she felt like it was time for her to move on to bigger schemes than him.

And, it's interesting to me how their sibling dynamic also creates this fragile internal stability in the Kabal...for awhile. Marazhai will always scheme against Yremeryss, and she will always be guarding against him, but that game (as Marazhai sees it) is a game of siblings and nobody else is allowed to join in. No other families could rise to challenge the Aezyrraesh if Marazhai made sure all the rival Dracons were bribed, intimidated, or suddenly discovered the joys of dirt naps. And in that way Yremeryss had at least a modicum of "safety" in that regard because so far as internal threats went, Marazhai wasn't going to tolerate any that didn't involve him. He was, a good functional brother and subordinate for as much as that was worth. But that internal stability became an external liability once they hit a political fork. As the only Dracon, Marazhai sat as the primary rallying point for any opposition to Yremeryss' plans, and thus needed to be gotten rid of. Marazhai, as any good Drukhari would, was itching for a chance to overthrow his sister especially if she was going in a direction that was politically inconvenient for him the Kabal. And, you know, maybe he was a bit overconfident about the reaches of brother privilege if things went wrong. Which left a good opening for someone like Nazrakhei, who had the rank and power to offer both sides what they wanted, an easy crack to exploit that unraveled the whole Kabal (for bit, true success ending dependent ofc).

[hanzajesthanza]

"the michael kandel translation of "the witcher" short story can't hurt you!!"

the michael kandel translation of "the witcher" short story:

[asurrogateblog]

pop-era genesis actually shares a lot of the same underlying themes as pink floyd (e.g., miscommunication, loss, alienation) but the key difference is that genesis songs are about universal human shortcomings that we can all relate to while pink floyd songs are about their own specific neuroses and if you happen to relate to them well then good bad for you

[sevens-evan]

diy hrt is obviously a net positive for the world and i think it's fine to promote information about it but it is crazy how a) a lot of the people who do promote it have an insane superiority complex about how much better and braver they are than people who go through a medical institution and b) how many of them actually know nothing about it. saw a diy person on here the other day talking abt how finasteride "is well known to literally only affect hair loss and not do anything else" and it's like. it's true that finasteride use in trans men is not studied and anecdotal reports vary wildly but if you know Literally Anything, Even A Single Thing about what finasteride actually does in the body and what dht does as a hormone you would know that's a stupid thing to say. which leaves one to conclude that that person Thought they knew what they were talking about without doing even a single second of googling. not good!

[daisydisciple]

the idea that """cancel culture""" (for lack of a better term) and "puriteens" and the like have roots in cultural Christianity is so interesting to me...are you saying they kept the concept of redemption only so they could call everyone irredeemable? You wanted to abolish sin but you accidentally abolished redemption instead?

because to me, “everyone is redeemable” is kind of...the whole point of Christianity. "I can become better; I can change and be changed" is infinitely more freeing than "I don't need to ever become better; I'm already good enough." Because I don't want to be stuck here forever, like this, in all my blunderings and mistakes and regrets! I want to grow and improve and be free!

But I guess if you interpret God as some kind of authoritarian despot who is just waiting to see you mess up, then you decide to throw of "the rules" as some kind of liberation. "Sin isn't real. just do whatever you want as long as it's not hurting anyone."

But we do hurt each other. And what then? The wrongs aren't as easily dismissed as "the rules." So instead everyone is unforgivable and irredeemable and everyone is toxic and secretly a horrible monster who was just biding their time. And no apology will ever be good enough. Everyone's a sinner and no one is redeemable and no one will ever be redeemed. But hey! At least we're free from the tyranny of Christianity!

[atomicsuperrobot]

Oh hey does anybody know yet what the Twitter thing was about? I don't really go on there anymore; thinking about deleting in order to remove the temptation, tbh... Not a big fan of some of the fandom on there, for reasons I refuse to elaborate on; to say nothing about the site in general (prime example being that blocking has been nerfed). It was supposed to be today, tho, so I was wondering if anybody had seen it yet.

[vampyr-bite]

i don’t understand why people making ‘dune is bad because of cultural appropriation’ posts also tell people that it doesn’t matter when the plot is explained to them because like. the plot is that the cultural appropriators are the bad guys? that fundamentally changes everything, no? a white guy quite literally declares himself the messiah on a planet that has been exploited for decades because it is home to a valuable resource. the white people in the film are the americans and arrakis is the middle east and the spice is oil (i know the book was written in the 60s so this wasn’t the analogy that the author had in mind but if the shoe fits…). they appropriate the culture to win them over. you’re upset that jessica is wearing ‘muslim’ clothing, but she is doing so to pretend to be one with them so that they will more easily accept her son as ruler over them. it’s not a white saviour narrative - paul doesn’t save them he commits a genocide. like. how does this not make a difference to how you view it?

[feisaru]

@soccerpunching you're genuinely one of the best people I've met here bc you like almost every media I like

Apropos fighting. Remember when Adora jumps on Catra at Prom. Just them rolling on the floor. I wanted to draw that but didn't get round to it. The scene had such an energy

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

And when the crowd sings the original lyrics, then what?

[proto-language]

been thinking about how weird i have been feeling about the king's cancer diagnosis. and i had been wondering, 'am i wrong for feeling strange and sad about this when the family at the heart of it are the centre of this awful system?'

and i think that, actually, this is just another part of what makes the system terrible. of course it is, first and foremost, exploitative of the people - of the united kingdom, of the wider commonwealth, of the many other places which were touched by the british imperial project. but it is exploitative also of the people around whom it is designed. for whom a cancer diagnosis is not a private tragedy, but a public affair. whose actions and appearances are noticed, reported, scrutinised. what does this mean for harry and william's relationship? - where is the king staying during his treatment? - how is he going to meet with the prime minister?

nobody wins, i think, while the royal family remain royal. certainly some are losing more severely than others. charles will have access to the best possible care for his condition while millions languish on nhs waiting lists. but this doesn't feel like any sort of victory to me.

[shame-kink]

one of the most important aspects to be learnt of being a political thinker online, a passive or active viewer of sociopolitical discourses and marginalization, is that just because you find someone to be “wrong” on a subject, have a bad take on a words definition or have shitty political/strategic takes, or just be fucking annoying to you personally, doesn’t make them stop being from the same marginalized group or group-of-groups as yourself. tragically sometimes a comrade-in-arms also just fucking sucks without it being a cishetero bourgeois psyop or a more-particularly-advantaged-yet-still-marginalized-group punching down. like there can be “self-hating” people from demographics actively trying to oppress said demographics but 9 times out of 10 Kaleb from My Discourses isn’t a Dennis Prager rubbing elbows with literal nazis he’s just that dipshit who thinks Judaism as a social category necessitates matrilineal affiliation (even though the people that actively hate Judaism as a social category don’t conceive of it as such). For example I mean.

this should really go without saying but good fucking god my own time in the ‘strangers with a word or two in common trying to kill each other online’ trenches neeeeded

[batemanofficial]

i must resist the urge to wade into the waters of discourse so i'll be vague but must all discussions of lesbian identity on this website center around men

[psychotrenny]

Kind of irritating how a notorious transmisogynist can regurgitate a few anti-imperialist talking points (which even in the context of the post alone they clearly don't understand) and it gets far more attention than like any of the coherent analyses of what's going on made by people who don't despise trans women