#liana has a very extensive story

[lilydoesanon]

Liana Lore

I promised you guys a little lore packet on Liana within the DC Universe, or more specifically, Omicron. this is just some little bits and pieces of her story, mostly the pieces relevant to her in Omicron.

behind the scenes:

Liana was initially born almost 9 years ago (whew) from TMNT when I originally hyperfixated on that. At the time, I was in a bit of a writing slump, due to negative comments and bad experiences online; without her, there's no telling where I'd be. A part of her saved my writing, and by extension, saved my life.

The strength of her muse has carried her through various fandoms, including: Fallout, Transformers, Voltron, Marvel, Teen Wolf, Supernatural, Mass Effect, and even COD (albeit short-lived), and many more. She carries a piece of every fandom she's entered within her. All of these fandoms have helped to build and develop her as a character within the multi-verse.

Her ties to TMNT are so strong, the characters and stories are now a part of her lore, and are adapted into every verse (except Fallout 3, bc that's a unique instance). Including DC, as DC has crossed over multiple times with TMNT.

She shares my birthday.

headcanons:

Name: Liana Carmen Morales

Aliases: Lily, Wild Rose, Hummingbird, the Dragon Guardian, the Shadow, the bug, and a few others.

She is two years older than Dick at any given time.

Born in New York. Moved to Gotham at age 11. Spent three years in Japan. Returned to Gotham at 15. Returned to New York at age 17. Some years later (around 6 or so), she came back to Gotham.

Her father (William, bc fuck William) was violently abusive towards her for reasons unknown. He later goes on to become a violent criminal, dealing in drugs, weapons, people and murder, among other things. Is generally locked up in Blackgate.

Her mother died at 11. Liana killed her. It's a complicated situation.

Liana had a younger brother. He is dead. She doesn't talk about it.

The line she never thought her father would cross (as mentioned in bruises) is related to her brother's death.

Has lost a lot of people. Each one is marked with a fallen feather tattoo on her back. The current count (in her DC Universe) is 12. Potentially 13 or 14: she may have gotten ones for Dick and Damian.

This also includes: Leo, Raph and Mikey of TMNT, and Splinter. Donnie survived but is now disabled. He's her tech guy.

Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey, and Splinter, are human in this AU. They still fought the Foot Clan and the Kraang and a few other enemies though (based on 2012 canon).

Liana is genderless in Omicron. She is not an alien, however she has alien DNA in her system. She is not a meta, as she does not carry the meta-gene, but the alien DNA gives her powers. She doesn't know why (I do). She has a memory blank of about six months, after which she woke up with her powers. She was about 16-17 years old when this happened. The aliens in question are currently unknown to the Justice League.

Liana was prescribed beta-blockers when she was 12, to suppress her secondary gender. She was struggling with severe mental health issues (including dissociation and PTSD); it was deemed that the hormone influx of her secondary puberty would have made things worse, and also interfered with her medication. She stayed on the blockers until she turned 18, at which point she learned she was genderless. She disguises herself as a Beta.

Was in some form of therapy since age 11. Has had multiple prescribed meds. Is currently in a good place, and has picked up a lot of therapy tricks.

Hummingbird is her vigilante alias. Because she has feathered wings tattooed on her back, and also bc people say she hummed when she was around. When she moved to Gotham, she was retired. However, during Dick's tenure as Batman, she suited up and he put her on the field, bringing her out of retirement. She is now an active member of Gotham's vigilante roster.

Wild Rose is her masked avenger alias, often used to patrol Crime Alley and surrounding areas to help protect the innocent and vulnerable. Eventually teamed up with the Red Hood to help stop a kidnapping and from there, she started to integrate with the Batfam as a whole.

She knew who they were from the beginning.

She met Bruce Wayne at a charity gala; then was saved by Batman from being mugged. She reached out to him to tell him she knew who he was (but not how she knew). Later, met Robin and then met Tim at another gala. Figured out who Dick was based on his athletic build (and his proximity to Bruce). Teamed up with the Red Hood to protect Crime Alley and then met him as Jason.

They bugged her phone. She knew it was bugged and left it there, as long as it wouldn't compromise Donnie. They never really knew how she knew her phone was bugged. It kind of still is, but Tim doesn't track the bug anymore. Jason called her 'the bug' for a while.

Dick was the first to befriend her, bonding over a shared enjoyment of acrobatics and gymnastics. Liana is a former gymnast (was on the Olympic track until her mother's death), a current competitive figure skater (mostly local and national competitions), and former-competitive, current-for-fun dancer.

Ice Cream Protocol: in the beginning, when people were getting stressed out by whatever was happening, she'd invite them out for ice-cream; to either give them a break or a safe space to vent, ice cream optional. She earned a reputation for listening and keeping secrets, so now ice cream is a code word to activate the protocol.

Jason's variant on Ice Cream Protocol, is pizza.

Is known to the League of Shadows, and knows about them. This is due to her involvement with the Foot Clan. The League technically owe her a favour since she was the one who killed the Shredder (the second time. Leo killed him the first time). The League and the Foot Clan are long-time rivals (bc I said so); however at this point in the lore, the Foot Clan is mostly disbanded, except for a New York branch.

Liana has earned the loyalty of the various New York crime factions. She essentially runs New York; the factions generally respect each other, as they all survived the Foot Clan and the Kraang. No one has been able to make a move against New York in years (altho they try).

Participates in underground fight clubs. Helps run a local theatre troupe. Is self-employed as an event planner. Runs a charity fundraising organisation, which does a full fashion show every Hallowe'en. Has a very busy schedule and yet somehow always has time for people. Probably never sleeps.

Has some magical ability. It seems she was intended to be a powerful sorcerer/magic-user but the alien DNA interferes with it.

Has died at least once.

[oldwinenewbottles]

Robert Laughlin, Preserver of a Mayan Language, Dies at 85

His monumental dictionary, after years of field work, documented Tzotzil in southern Mexico. But that was just the start of his efforts to preserve the culture.

By Neil Genzlinger

Published June 24, 2020

Robert M. Laughlin, an anthropologist and linguist whose extensive work in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico documented and helped revitalize Mayan languages and culture, died on May 28 in Alexandria, Va. He was 85.

His son, Reese, said the cause was the new coronavirus.

Dr. Laughlin spent much of his professional life doing field work in Chiapas, beginning in the late 1950s. He learned the Tzotzil (also spelled Tsotsil) language as a graduate student with the Harvard Chiapas Project, a long-term ethnographic field study that had just been started by Professor Evon Vogt and was focusing on the town of Zinacantán. After years of painstaking work, in 1975 Dr. Laughlin published The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán, with 30,000 entries.

Indigenous languages in the region — there are many — had been under siege since the Spanish conquest, and Dr. Laughlin’s dictionary helped spur a revival of interest in them. The dictionary, published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where Dr. Laughlin was curator of Mesoamerican ethnology, was not simply a compilation of which Tzotzil word equals which English word. It was a deep dive into word origins, how the language had mutated and more.

“The term ‘dictionary’ hardly does the work justice,” Judith Aissen, professor emerita of linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in an email. “It is a rigorous work of linguistic scholarship, but through its entries, also the repository of a great deal of cultural knowledge.”

The dictionary, created with two local collaborators, Romin Teratol and Anselmo Peres, set an example for the field. “It has been the cornerstone of so many efforts in language and knowledge revitalization ever since,” Igor Krupnik, chair of the anthropology department at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, said by email.

But it was only the beginning for Dr. Laughlin. He wrote or collaborated on various collections of folk tales and dreams, an 18th-century Tzotzil dictionary (with John B. Haviland, an anthropology professor at the University of California, San Diego), and more. And in 1982, when some Indigenous friends asked him for help in creating a cultural association, he became one of the founders of Sna Jtz’ibajom — or, in English, the House of the Writer, a collective that promoted local writings and publications.

An offshoot of that, a few years later, was Monkey Business Theater, a troupe that performed folk tales and other works. He brought in the American puppeteer Amy Trompetter to help local participants use puppets in their storytelling.

“To her distress, the first skit they chose to perform was a folk tale that tells of a newlywed whose wife’s head mysteriously disappears at night to eat corpses,” he wrote in “Monkey Business Theater,” a 2008 book about the troupe. But the group caught on and was soon in high demand, performing throughout the region and beyond.

One of Dr. Laughlin’s most recent collaborations was “Mayan Tales From Chiapas, Mexico” (2014), in which he and two translators recorded 42 folk tales as told by the same woman, Francisca Hernández Hernández, the only Tzotzil speaker remaining in her village. The book presented the stories in English, Spanish and Tzotzil.

In the foreword, Gary H. Gossen, professor emeritus of anthropology and Latin American studies at the University at Albany, the State University of New York, wrote of Dr. Laughlin’s career: “He has earnestly and successfully returned to the native Maya communities of highland Chiapas a sense of ownership of their own literary legacy.”

Robert Moody Laughlin was born on May 29, 1934, in Princeton, N.J., to Ledlie and Roberta Howe Laughlin. His father was assistant dean of admissions at Princeton University, and his mother was a homemaker.

He grew up in Princeton, graduated from South Kent School in Connecticut in 1952 and earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature at Princeton in 1956. The next year he enrolled in a summer graduate program in anthropology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City, which included field work among the Mazatec, an Indigenous people in the state of Oaxaca.

His interest piqued, he enrolled at Harvard, where he received a master’s degree in anthropology in 1961 and a Ph.D. in it in 1963. In 1960 he married Miriam Elizabeth Wolfe, and after he joined the Smithsonian in 1965, they had alternated between living in Chiapas and Alexandria, Va., for decades.

Almost as challenging as compiling his monumental 1975 dictionary was physically producing it, given the complexity of the material, the multiplicity of symbols and unusual letter combinations, and the limitations of the relatively primitive computers used to produce it.

“When I went to pick it up,” Dr. Laughlin wrote in the introduction, describing the first attempt to print a proof copy, “I discovered that the Tzotzil-English section was very much as I had desired. But the English to Tzotzil section of The Great Tzotzil Dictionary had been reduced to the lowest common denominator; page after page of one letter per line arranged in a single column. This was followed by all the Latin names neatly decapitated and arranged alphabetically according to the second letter.”

“My dictionary,” he added, “became known around the museum as The Great Tzotzil Disaster.”

Modest efforts to resurrect Indigenous languages had been going on for several decades when the dictionary appeared, but the Tzotzil language and its cousins were primarily oral traditions; speakers of such languages were illiterate in them. The dictionary helped change that.

“A potential audience had slowly been building for material in Tzotzil, Tzeltal and about 30 other Mayan languages,” a 1992 article in Smithsonian magazine noted. “Laughlin’s dictionary contributed a standardized template for writing down the Mayan sounds.”

Dr. Laughlin died in a hospital in Alexandria. In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife; a daughter, Liana Laughlin; and three grandchildren.

When Dr. Laughlin’s dictionary was published, Senator William Proxmire, the prominent Wisconsin Democrat, gave it one of his Golden Fleece Awards, which he used to call attention to projects he considered frivolous. Colleagues said Dr. Laughlin had considered the award a badge of honor — “perhaps out of general contrariness,” Thor R. Anderson, his friend and sometimes collaborator, wrote in an appreciation, “but also because, at the height of that particular contretemps, fellow scholars rushed to his defense.”

In 1988, when Dr. Laughlin and Dr. Haviland published their colonial-era dictionary, “The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán, With Grammatical Analysis and Historical Commentary,” careful readers may have noted the dedication on Page 7:

To William E. Proxmire

For the fun of it!

[leolamin97]

Story Pitch:

The Loud House X Scooby Doo

Scooby Doo and The Loud Curse

 Plot:

     The Loud's for family reasons take a trip to Massachusetts to a town called Quiet Stone. To a family estate that is apparently theirs, though the townspeople seem to have a stigma with them in regards to a curse placed upon their town by a Loud in 1800s. They say that youngest daughter of the Loud Family at the time Lucille was a witch and after her brother was killed in a fire. She fled the town and placed a curse upon its inhabitants for years to come summoning the spirits of past dead Loud family members to haunt the town and cause chaos.

    Around the same the Scooby gang has made a stop here as well taking in the scenery. That night at a town party when the Ghost of Lucille Loud who looks a lot like Lucy appears before everyone in the town in a massive shadowy cloud that overtakes the Fairgrounds. She says that with the return of her family the time has come for her curse to come and terrorize the small town of Quiet Stone.

      Now the Loud's and the Gang must come together to solve this mystery Travelling around town, discovering areas, finding secrets, locating clues, and uncovering the Lost History of the town and their family. But it won’t be just that easy with the curse in effect they will not just fight 1 but 10 ghosts. Get ready for thrills and chills as they get ready for the fright of their lives.

 Main Characters: The Loud House

-Lincoln -Lori -Leni -Luna -Luan -Lynn -Lucy -Lola -Lana -Lisa -Lily -Rita & Lynn Sr. (Are there but don’t play a huge part in the mystery solving)

Scooby Doo

(The Gang are all College age at this point. At least juniors)

-Fred Jones: Based off the live action film and Mystery Incorporated. He is a pretty boy and knows it, has a bit of a ego but knows when to put it away for the sake of his friends. He also constantly surprises people with his knowledge of engineering and architecture. Shows a bit of a geeky side when in large old houses or construction sites. -Daphne Blake: Based of Live Action and What’s New. Always the fashionista and ready to look good. Can be a bit vain but knows when to put it aside. She’s also a bit of a Macgyver able to use either what she has on her person or random objects for a variety of situations. And she is a Black Belt in Martial Arts ready to kick the butt of anyone who thinks she’s just a pretty face/damsel in distress -Velma Dinkley: Live action and Mystery Incorporated. Smart and she knows it, with a bit of Sass when she talks. She’s a bit socially inept cool with the gang but has trouble when talking to others when she isn’t talking about clues or mysteries. The only thing scarier to her than the ghosts and monsters is being forced out of her comfort zone and trying new things, though she is at least willing to try. -Shaggy Rogers: Pretty much every Shaggy Ever. He’s the lovable slacker who is stuck in the 60’s. Would rather not go into such terrifying situations, but loves to help those in need. Will run from danger in a heartbeat and then run back if a friend is in need. Also very knowledgeable about food and is a great chef. -Scooby Doo: It’s Scooby what else do you need to know.  ;P

Original Characters:

The Quiet Family: Respected Members of the town descending from the town settlers -Quinten Quiet: Father and Mayor of the Town -Lila Quiet: Mother and head of the Festival -Quain Quiet: Son 14yrs, Magician in training always trying out new tricks and has a stage show in the festival -Queenie Quiet: Daughter 11yrs, A tech head with a IQ close to Lisa’s and Velma’s. Though she’s more focused on Machines, has a dry and sometimes dark sense of humor

-Old Man Barksdale: The Town crazy fully believes in the legend of the Loud Curse. Spends most of his time telling people to beware as he rides about on his old Bike. -Nick Barksdale: His grandson loves his Grandpa and likes hanging out with him despite his parents telling him to keep his distance. But he believes in the Legend and wants to prove that his grandpa isn’t crazy

-Eveline Dupree: The Goth and assistant Librarian. Another believer of the Legend has extensive knowledge of the Curse and the Loud family tree, even of them weirdly.

Ghosts: The family and the gang are facing off against 10 spirits each with a different theme and motif. But the strangest thing all of them look like a member of the family and the sibling who looks like them is mysteriously gone whenever they show up. Why is that? That’s the mystery. ;)

-Lincoln/Lucas Loud: From the 1800’s the first ghost the run into a mirror image of Lincoln. Only wearing a tattered/burned suit fitting of the times with a pair of gloves. His eyes are starch white, he seems to have fangs, and is able to throw fire as well as engulf himself in flames

-Lori/Lorelei: Coming from the late 1700’s she is a poltergeist appearing in a beautiful haze floating in the air wearing a beautiful dress and a veil over her face. However, if you get closer she’ll reveal her true face having some monstrous visages and fangs. Her power seeming to be to move various stuff at will with her otherworldly power.

-Leni/Lia: From the early 1900’s she is a voodoo Zombie. With green skin, a terrible smell, stitches, and a sewn-up mouth. Her clothes are worn and damp from rising from the swamp waters. Not the brightest but is incredibly strong able to lift the back wheels of the Mystery Machine of the ground. She is a terror to be chased by but she’s only one half of a larger act.

-Luna/Lillith: From the 1600’s she was killed after being called a demon, which now seems to be true. Purple skin, horns, claws, dark markings on her body, and red snake like eyes. She can throw purple fire and has a glass shattering banshee scream. When you hear her lovely voice on those dark moonlit nice run the other way.

-Luan/Lyla: Late 1800’s a spirit who appears to be very theatrical, dressed as a clown with yellow and purple, covering her face with a terrifying mask, and letting out a horrifying cackle as she floats through the air. Incredibly tricky leading people into her own traps and loves to play and scare. She breathes fire from out of her mask and seems to be proficient in knife throwing.

-Lynn/Lucia: From the 1700’s right out of the American Revolution. She wanted to fight for freedom and died for it. Wearing a tattered military uniform, a pot on her head, carrying a old timey musket and sword. She is relentless and is always down to win the battle, take cover when she takes aim

-Lucy/Lucille Loud: The little sister of Lucas and the one who started this curse. Appears in a cloud of darkness wearing a dark cloak, razor fangs and claws and a dark grim voice (so not to different from Lucy). She doesn’t appear much only to make her proclamations and strangely Lucy actually saw her at the start with everyone else.

-Lola/Lillain: A 15th century vampire princess wearing her beautiful regale attire that contradicts her monstrous personality. Armed with razor fangs and claws that you want to keep away from flesh. But like any royal she prefers not to get her hands dirty when possible, which is why she usually has her pet take care of things

-Lana/Liana: Lillain’s twin/pet wolf-girl vicious and ready to obey her master. She will tear through anything to get to her target and complete her masters orders

-Lisa/Lila: The second half of Lia the Zombie, Lila is a Voodoo witch doctor the one who brought Lia to life. Despite her size in incredibly dangerous, able to use variety of potions to create horrible monsters to do her bidding Lia included

Fun Facts/Ideas:

1.     The first chase/encounter with Lucas Loud is based heavily on the intro to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island with it happening in the ruins of the old Loud House. Accompanied by the cover of “Scooby Doo Where are you” by Third Eye Blind.

2.     I would have “It’s Terror Time Again” by Skycycle play for the chase with Lillith. It rocking just like Luna.

3.     While running away Leni ends up behind the wheel of the Mystery Machine and a crazy chase ensues as they try to avoid the ghost and not die.

4.     Lyla is based off of the Luna Ghost from the beginning of the 1st Live Action Scooby Doo film

5.     Lillith was based off of the Demon Luna pics by Mast3r-Rainb0w

6.     Lincoln recognizes the gang because he follows them online, they are his second favorite Ghost hunting team

7.     Despite all the horrible monsters Lily is never afraid. In fact she actively tries to approach them in every encounter only for Scooby or one of her siblings to grab her and run the other way.

8.     When they encounter Lucia the scene is like the encounter with the Black Knight from Monsters Unleashed. With Daphne trying to fight her off and help the others

[robin-hood-for-freedom]

Its been a LONG time since I’v done anything regarding Anita Sarkeesian.  And to be honest, I wasnt going to make a response to this.  But I feel like he actually raises some interesting points that are worth discussing.  

to the skeptics and anti sjw's she'sseen in all ways as a force for bad adishonest critic opportunist a scamartist and ideologue a huge dick 

I guess thats fair.  At this point I dont think most anti-sjws really care about her though.  I will say that, I, personally never got on board with the whole idea that she was a scam artist(though I can see why some people came to that conclusion).  Imo, even if its true(and I doubt it), its largely a red herring.  

so what I'll call the Internet left however she was broadly understood as an all-around decent critic who was unfairly maligned harassed and abused because she was a woman who spoke about feminism and about her unfair treatment on the Internet

Since you are part of the ‘internet left’ I’ll take your word for it.  

I genuinely like Anita sarkeesian I agree with lots of her points and thought she was pretty cool before I knew she was somebody who everybody hated

I’m gonna be honest: Even if I was inclined to agree with anita’s criticism(I’m not), I dont know if I would really like her as a person or say she was ‘cool.’  Her videos and public appearances to me just come across as boring and uninspired.  

To be fair though, my only interaction with her has been through those videos/appearances.  So its possible she’s actually really nice and funny in person.  

even if I didn't like her though I still wouldn't think she deserved the ire of the public you know threats and harassment from people who hated every fiber of her being

Looking back I’m actually somewhat inclined to agree with you.  Aside from the obvious that nobody deserves threats and harassment(although those were grossly exaggerated), I actually think the attention given to her was unwarranted.  That said, I think most of was less hatred for Anita as a person, or even as a woman, and more concerns about her potential influence and how that might affect games(and other media) we love.  

Looking back that influence turned out to be ‘basically none’ but you know what they say about hindsight.  

I'm gonna be looking closely at a few people mostly Thunderfoot and sargon of akkad

I’m going to point out at this point that I’m not really that interested in defending Sargon or Thunderf00t(especially not Thunderf00t).  I have my quibbles with their takes on Anita.  

the first big argument that Anita sarkeesian wants to make that looking at games we can see a general tendency toward centralizing narratives of male and particularly straight male empowerment and what's more that this narrative tends to place the women of video games into some pretty weird positions women are less likely to be the protagonists of games they're more likely to be presented as sexually appealing to have their bodies put on display they're more likely to take on passive or victimized positions as damsels their to be rescued by predominantly male heroes

You cold argue that there are games that do this.  I could point out loads of counter-examples of games that dont.  

But, more importantly, I think, is that she doesnt really make an argument for why this is bad.  And even the limited attempts she does make, you explicitly reject later in this video.  In other words, we’re left with no reason to accept this as a criticism, unless we’ve bought into feminist ideology prior to clicking on Anita’s videos.  

If you want to argue that these videos were meant to be specifically for a feminist audience and that its silly for non-feminists to care, I guess thats fair as far as it goes.  But I dont think thats what you are getting at with this video.  

not being an expert in games myself I can't really go through er work fact-checking each and everyone of those examples besides that's not really something that interests me

I guess thats fair as far as it goes.  I’m actually glad you acknowledge that you dont know that much about games(unlike anita).  But I think you’ll miss a lot of the criticisms of her in that case, which tended to focus on how fairly she was presenting the games she looked at(not very in most cases).  

He then posts and summarizes a Thunderf00t video here, I’m only gonna respond to one point then pick up later(watch the full video for context)

Jamie's girlfriend didn't need to get beaten up we didn't need to see her panties as she was taken away

I pointed this out when I responded to Anita, but compare the amount of Marion porn, to the amount of Chung-li porn, and then tell me how much men desire weak or disempowered women(granted this isnt overly relevant to anything he said, but it was something that always bugged me about anita’s arguments).

Double Dragon might be a story about heroism in some broad sense but it's also a male power fantasy it makes you feel good because you get to play as a badass

No, it IS a story about heroism.  I can agree that the game sidelines and ‘damsels’ Marion(although again I’m not sold on the idea of that being inherently a bad thing).  But the fantasy isnt just about beating people up for no reason, its about being able to protect and save the people you care about.  I’m seriously skeptical that Double Dragon(or most other games) would resonate as much without that aspect.  

I’m skipping most of the rest of the Thunderf00t stuff, because I dont think thunderf00t made the best arguments, and dont have much desire to defend them.  

here's her second and much more important position that games being like that that's a problem Anita isn't just here to make a bunch of neutral statements about what video games are like she wants to say that video games have some relationship to things like sexism misogyny the patriarchy negative and pervasive stuff she sees in our culture

And since I’m not convinced that games can cause people to become sexist or other have other negative views(and neither are you as we shall see).  The only problem is that the games in question offend her feminist sensibilities.  

[these youtubers] nitpick small errors in her analysis see she spoke too broadly about hitman her general observations about video games must be totally off-base

Its not just hitman.  That was just one of many, many examples of her misrepresenting or deliberately using game mechanics to painting games in a worse light than reality is.  Also she shows no understand of how gameplay affects player attention and focus(presumably because she doesnt know as a result of not playing them)

cultivation Theory cultivation theory is an area of research and psychology that attempts to study and demonstrate the impact that media has on people the sorts of behaviors and dispositions it cultivates and when these youtubers talk about this theory it is always to point out that the research has proven it false

Not so much that its been proven false.  But that the effects shown are much more subtle than is commonly portrayed, tends to reinforce previously held beliefs rather than implanting new ones, and may not even apply to games.  Liana Kerzner(funny how you dont cover her despite the fact that she got a decent amount of attention for arguing with Anita), and AydenPaladin have both discussed this extensively, so I’ll just leave links to their videos.  

let's say for the sake of argument that these people are absolutely right about their science every study we've done shows that video games cause no shift in behavior or disposition our research into cultivation Theory has given us nothing but a bunch of bummed out psychologists now assuming all this let's ask a question what exactly would these findings mean to Anita sarkeesian's claim that video games can be harmful

It would mean she’s wrong.  Actually she’s wrong even in the real world where cultivation is a thing, just more subtle and might not apply to games.  

but to me it would mean absolutely nothing and why is that well here's one big reason I don't think that science is actually capable of disproving obvious facts about the wa ypeople work media's abilities are cultivate behaviors emotions and dispositions isn't some incidental point about it that requires further proof rather it's the entire reason why media exists in the first place

You’re conflating two very different things here.  Nobody denies that media has an ‘effect’ in the sense of causing an emotional reaction or giving some new information to people.  But thats a VERY different thing than saying media can alter peoples long-term attitudes, beliefs or behaviors.  

I agree the former is obvious.  The latter isnt.  And in fact the effect media has is pretty small.  

let's do a little thought experiment say a film is made that is unabashed Nazi propaganda let's call it Lubin'sLubin

You obviously dont speak German, but okay.  

every moment in this film conveys an anonymous and an explicit hatred of Jews let's say that this film is so horrendously racist that nobody in society can possibly be influenced by it to become Nazis the vast majority of people watch it critically tear it apart maybe even reflect on how silly and gross Nazism is

So you’re saying this film may, unintentionally, have a net positive effect on society.  Go on.

now if what's argon and Thunderfoot says is true if the only way to say a work of art is toxic is to look at its literal impact on society then we would be unable to condemn Lubin sh Lubin since the film has no tangible effect on anyone's behavior

Oh we could absolutely condemn the film, say its gross or bad or stupid or whatever.  What could not do is say its harmful.  Because it isnt.  

everybody with a brain knows that this movie is bad politically not in a way that means we should ban it but in a way that is worthy of our scorn and disgust

Sure such a film would be disgusting.  But disgust isnt harm.  And to conflate the two is not only disingenuous as fuck, but potentially dangerous.  

By this logic, Anita Sarkeesian’s videos are harmful, because lots of people are disgusted by them.  

watching Anita sarkeesian's videos she does site cultivation Theory a few times says there's a causal relationship between video games being the way they are and people being sexist and to be honest I kinda wish she hadn't said those things

Do I even need to comment?  

you can see that she means something very similar to what we described in our thought experiment we can see this whenever she talks about games it's pretty obvious

Indeed.  Her main reason for condemning video games is that they offend her feminist sensibilities.  So non-feminists have no reason to accept her criticism.  

she didn't wait for the Double Dragon studies to come in and prove that the game causes regressive behaviors and of course she didn't do that because she doesn't have to she is a person who experienced this work of art and she's claiming here that what she saw in it

Or in other words:

it stipulates that violence against women can be understood as erotic

Again, who is the bigger sex symbol: Marion or Bayonetta?  hint: its NOT the one who is passive recipient of violence.  

it just doesn't make sense to reserve our judgments of media to only those things that the work is actively calling for we also have to look at subtext and coding

And the subtext here is ‘kidnapping and beating up women is bad.  And real manly badasses protect and care for the ones they love.’  

keeping with our Nazi propaganda theme which I guess we have here let's use let's use this boy as an example:

image posted for reference.

this image obviously sucks because in the society it was used in it conveyed terrible ideas it serves to implicitly justify racial hierarchy and to normalize the idea that Jewish people were subhuman it

The difference here is the image in question was used in explicit anti-semitic propaganda.  There is a history here that directly links this imagery to Nazism and anti-semitism more broadly.  

Video games dont have such a history.  Even the tropes anita discusses that pre-date video games, such as the damsel in distress dont really have such a history.  The story of Saint George and the dragon(one of the earliest DiD stories, and the oldest anita cites) was about faith and knightly duty, not gender relations.  Hell Double Dragon isnt ABOUT how helpless your grlfriend, but about being the hero who is willing and capable to protect her.  

Skipping some more, because I dont care:

what he[thunderf00t] seems to have forgotten is that you can buy cigarettes under capitalism and you can buy an apple under capitalism cigarettes kill 400,000 people every year but apples they don't do nearly that much damage it's actually said that they keep the doctors away you might think that cigarettes should remain legal and I'm sympathetic to that idea but you'd have a hard time convincing me that they're not harmful to the people who use them

The difference is that we have loads of evidence that cigarettes cause real, tangible harm.  The same cannot be said for media.  Even cultivation theory says that media tends to reinforce existing beliefs than implant new ones.  And its not always clear that those beliefs translate into tangible actions.  

And I’m gonna say it again before anybody brings it up:  disgust is not harm.  

you may think that you can talk about the worth of art from a political or moral perspective but in fact that's just a mirage anything you say about media is just an unverified and likely unsupportable position and you should probably forget about

I would phrase it differently:  You can talk about media from a moral or political perspective all you want.  However, anybody who doesnt share your perspective would then be perfectly justified in simply dismissing what you have to say.  

hate Anita sarkeesian not because of what she says but because of who she is and the damage she causes

More precisely the damage we thought she might potentially cause.  Which admittedly in hindsight was an overreaction.  

they talk about how she sucks because she released her video slowly

Usually its less about her being slow, and more about she failed to keep her kickstarter promises.  I dont really go in for that because because I frankly dont think its that big a deal.  

didn't like being harassed on the Internet

Look, what she has shown as harassment is no worse than what most people(men and women) experience.  The vast majority of it wasnt even harassment but responses and criticisms.  

I guess you could say that online harassment shouldnt be a thing at all.  But I also dont think thats very realistic.  

talk about how she's a fraudulent grifter who gets her lackeys to phony bomb threats so she can make more money

I dont know about the bomb threat thing specifically.  I DO know that she used the harassment she received(real or not) to get attention and money.  

about how she's a fake gamer and so she shouldn't be talking about games

Thats a perfectly valid criticism though.  Media criticism is best done by people who actually have knowledge of the media in question.  

these guys are unapologetically anti-feminist and because of that they see no reason to change media to make it more feminist

So you DO get it!  

and they don't criticize and Anita sarkeesian's work because of cultivation theory I mean where are the studies that show that these videos are causing murder rates to increase

I honestly dont know what you’re getting at here.  The only reason anybody ever brought up cultivation theory is because Anita did first.  

And they dont criticize Anita  Sarkeesian's work because she explicitly calls for immoral actions

Nobody said she did?  Although I think if you read between the lines she has some really negative views towards men.  

and they don't criticize Anita sarkeesian's videos because they exist outside some benevolent capitalist structure I've got some hot news for you Anita sarkeesian's work is actually facilitated by capitalism

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.  But it does make Anita a massive fucking hypocrite.  

no they hate Anita sarkeesian's work mostly because she says stuff they think is bad she's a feminist who wants various things about games to change and they disagree with her vehemently about it

And more importantly, that with all the attention she was getting at the time we thought the kind of changes she wants might actually start to happen.  Not that her videos would turn game developers into feminists(because lets face it, theres basically zero chance of her videos turning anybody feminist).  But because they might become convinced that there is an audience for the kind of games she wants.  

Like I said multiple times:  We were mostly mistaken about that.  

Theres not really much else here.  he just repeats himself.  so thats all for now.  

[michellemcnamara262003]

Your time lapse life

Lately, I have been looking at my life through a time lapse lens. Instagram shots of happy memories, pasted together to resemble a series of happy memories and perfectly photographed food strung together seemlessly like an endless impression of a moody yet flawless john Mayer music video. The time lapse is deceptive, and the magic lenses of a filtered camera has failed to capture the endless endless endless disappointment. When I was an undergraduate, I had a vision for myself. Like all 18 year olds, it was a magical vision. I would be a 4.0 student, a star athlete, the object of every boys desire. Success would fall into my hands, I would be surrounded by praise and affection and I would basically, in its essence, encounter a life where my every desire is met. As most adults know in hindsight, we almost always fall short of the ambitions we set for ourselves. And reflecting back, I believe my first encounters with failure were in sports. I was a scrappy soccer player. Quick, tenacious Nita little too small and a little too undisciplined. I loved the game. I detested most of my team mates. In high school I was put on the junior varsity two years in a row. In biology class, I sat next to a girl who was a soccer legend. She played for the best club team, was on the varsity team and had somehow managed to find herself on the junior national team. I sat behind her and watched her struggle in biology. That didn't seem to matter. She had everything I ever wanted, and I would have gladly changed places with her in a heartbeat- her soccer success for my A in biology. Her athleticism for my 3.56 average grades. But the world doesn't work like that, and the harder I worked, the further I found myself behind, falling short of my ambitions and goals. I switched schools my junior year. I was never going to make the varsity team. My short comings hurt to the point that I was failing at school. My adventures in public school were lonely. I never made friends. I ate lunch alone everyday. The glimmer of popularity I wanted was squished by my soft spoken way of existing, blending in so that no one would see me. I barely spoke my senior year. In English class, I downright refused to speak. It became more of a challenge then a solution. The teacher hardly noticed and again, I blended into the background of the public school system. In December of my senior year I suffered a tremendous loss. While running during a soccer match, I twisted the wrong way. My legs spun in one direction, while my torso moved in the other. I fell, and when I got up, I felt strange. I kept running, no thinking much of it until the game was over. Then, like a bolt of electricity a skreeching, blinding pain took over my entire body. For the next six months I struggled with a hernia. Two epideral injections and an extensive back surgery and I was not in pain. However, my psyche, my sense of invincibility was crushed. I was no longer the kid who wanted to be the best, I was the young adult with a lack of belonging. This was the beginning of the end of my soccer career. I had a bit of interest from colleges, but after this, I was limited. I was bitter. I chose Texas Christian. My dad was proud. I was going to college and playing division 1 sports. However, I just wasn't that athlete anymore. The coaches threatened to cut me multiple times. At the end of the season, they held true on those threats. I was cut. I was gone. I transferred. Centenary was a new start for me. At least it was suppose to be. I was the player from the big d-1 school, come to play at the little d-1 school. But I found myself in a similar place. Too small, not fast enough and just not fitting in. The coach threatened to cut me, but decided to keep me on for a little while longer to see if I improved. I improved, and stayed on for the spring season as a last resort sub. Now if you're hearing this story, you are expecting a Rudy moment. Too bad. There isn't one. I broke my tibia that next summer, red shirted the following season and quit that spring. I was done with soccer. I was tired of the rejection. I was tired of that feeling of not being good enough, because the fact was: I was not good enough. I remember the night I told my dad I didn't want to play anymore. He was supportive, but could t understand. He couldn't get it. Even the coach, chase couldn't understand why. He even made an off handed promise that I would play in some of the games the next season. I quit. I sometimes regret quitting. But I knew it's for the best. I threw myself into school, my friendships. I did well in school. My motivation was medical school. I wanted to be a physician more than anything. I packed my schedule with honors courses and science courses. I made As. Teachers praised me. But in the end, I realize I was a mediocre student with mediocre credentials. I applied to multiple medical schools. I did not even receive a single interview. I was defeated. After college, I moved home to my childhood home. My younger brother was still at home. My childhood wasn't great,and I often get suffocated by the hovering of my dad and grandma, the lack of friends and a lack of purpose in my life. I worked a few jobs: I was a barista at Starbucks, a tutor for an independent education company and a teachers aide at my dads school. It was a lonely year, and I had no friends. I often found myself broken down in tears,wondering if I would ever find my place in things. I had to get out of my parents house. I applied to graduate school with the sole purpose of getting far away. I chose Vermont. I started a phd program having very little sense of what I was doing. I was very close to flunking out of my first year. My grades were shotty. My apartment was a rickety moldy graduate apartment I shared with a medical student who would fill the bath tub up with water and leave it there. She never once took out the trash and did not own a single piece of furniture. To top it all off, she hated me. Not just a passive hate, but a literal, palpable sense of hate. My first lab rotation was a disaster. My first mentor told me on a daily basis that I shouldn't be in graduate school, I had no friends, no social skills and was not smart enough to be in graduate school. She even talked to the director of the program in an effort to get me kicked out. This was after two weeks of being in her lab. Luckily, the director stood up for me. She told me I belonged, that I could change rotations if I wanted, and even offered a rotation I her own lab. I decided to stay, even after she berated me everyday. Every single day. It was like being in an abusive relationship. At the end of my rotation I happily moved on. I joined the next lab I rotated in, for no specific reason other than I had no where else to go. I was there for four years. In those years I was unsuccessful. I didn't publish I didn't find anything new. I barely existed. When it was time to defend, I found myself at odds with a mountain of regret. What am I doing here? What am I doing with my life? During graduate school I made friends. For the first time in my life, I felt connections with people. My first friend in graduate school was a girl named Liana. She was in my graduate school cohort. We were both athletes, and we found a friendship between us. When she decided she no longer wanted to speak to me,I felt that overwhelming sense of depression that I experienced in high school. That feeling that I am weird I. An unironic way and that no one will ever love me. Why she stopped talking to me has a lot to Do with some of things I say being awkward and uncomfortable. I made other friends. I met a guy named Ben who fell in love with my weirdness, I met a girl named sherry who cheated on me, forever changing my faith in people's fidelity and a girl named Maria who truly broke my heart. I also met a drug addict who was semi obsessed with anal sex, a few alcoholic friends and an emotionally disturbed Asian girl who's bipolar impression of me leaves people on their toes when I am in the same room. I also met my wife, mae. I adopted a dog and a cat. I bought and sold a condo. So life hasn't always been bad. It's been good too. After graduate school I moved to Oregon. I gotta job in an inpatient treatment center for kids. I was physically and emotionally abused ten to twenty times a day. Children bit me, threw objects at me, punched, kicked, spit and down right attacked me. I was physically injured multiple times, and even was taken by ambulance to the emergency department. My employment ended shortly after that. I have never recovered emotionally, and I still feel anxious from time to time when I hear children scream. After that incident I found myself finding work difficult. I was j employed for over a month. I took the first job that came my way: an adjunct professorships at university of Portland. At first, I was surprised that such fortune came my way. When I got down to doing the job, I realized how undesirable this position was. One class over 4months ways $3000. After taxes I was taking home $700 a month. Hardly enough to survive. And I couldn't find other employment as this course was taught 3x a week from 12-1pm. One of the professors kindly told me that I would never advance at this institution. I still to this day do not know if she was being brutally kind or brutally aggressive. I left after 1 semester. I didn't fit within the confines of academia. I didn't belong there. I moved to Miami. I wanted a fresh start. I decided nursing would be a good fit. I was somewhat successful at school. I did well in course work, in clinic and in other areas demanded of me. However, I never really fit into the mold they were trying to squeeze me into. I was weird and quiet and uncomfortable. One of my clinical instructors asked me why nursing. I could t give her a valid reason. I couldn't figure it out. I am back in Vermont, still trying to find myself. Still trying to pick up the pieces of my life and put them together into a coherent story. I'm looking for a job, a solid landing pad. I want to join the military. I want them to take my hands and show me that I can be what I want and need. I've babbled for over an hour now. It's time for me to go. I have never believed in god. That has been my choice. But I dwell on things, so I must assume that is a form of prayer.