#like i said lots of nuance and stuff

[astrobei]

No no no… butch Will Byers

so i’m not the op of the post in question and also i am not a butch lesbian so i’m obviously not trying to speak from a perspective i don’t have. but, at more of a surface level, i guess i do see where you’re coming from: if you take will’s canon gender nonconformity (and its direct correlation to his experience with sexuality) and translate that to a lesbyler au, it makes sense that the immediate inclination would be to make her butch — to have the inverse of that gender nonconformity play out, one that is also directly correlated to her sexuality and would often ostracize her from the general (heterosexual) population. however to me, characterization across these types of AUs is more about maintaining a character’s core traits and values, which i think is what op was getting at in their tags and the overall intent of the post. which is of course not to say that will’s experience with being gnc is not a vital part of his character and story, but more so that i think mike’s core personality traits and values align a lot more closely with the historic associations with the butch experience and identity than will’s do (re: op’s tags — being a knight, protector, etc). these types of takes are a lot more interesting to me because i feel like they go one step further than the more immediate and instinctive interpretations and instead create a kind of thought exercise that i find really, really fun: taking the traits that really set a character apart from the others (e.g: mike and will sharing a lot of the core traits and values that their overall story is built off of, while also being so, so different in other ways that fuel their independent arcs) and keeping those consistent while changing so much about the world around them. and, in the case of a lesbyler au, even changing parts of who they are and the expectations placed on men vs. women and their experiences with sexuality because of it. what makes a gay man gnc and how he is treated because of it will always be a lot different than how a gnc lesbian is treated, and i think there’s a lot of nuance to this that could be really interesting to explore.

anyways, all of this to say that i do think if you were to make one of them butch it would absolutely be mike over will and i will probably always have a hard time seeing it the other way around. but also i feel like this fandom can be weirdlyyyyy combative about disagreements in stuff like this and that AUs and hcs that are meant to be in good fun so often get taken so seriously that it doesn’t become fun anymore, so i hope my little spiel made sense! at the end of the day if butch will byers is the hill you’re taking a stand on it does not personally affect me in any way and im not here to police you about it. but me personally i’m very definitively over here in lesbyler butch mike land 🏴 (<- waving my flag)

[quaranmine]

On Wednesday before I gave my presentation I confessed to a new employee that I was worried it would be too long and she brightly told me her life hack was to just let AI rewrite things for her. She said I should put in all my talking points and ask ChatGPT to give me a five minute exactly presentation. I was like....how is the most polite possible way (since this is a new colleague I shouldn't get off on the wrong foot with) that I can express that I will Not be taking this advice. Ever. I told her that I didn't think we were allowed to use ChatGPT at this job (we most certainly are not, it is a nightmare for any type of protected information) and also that I prefer to write all of my own work. Despite my best efforts the last part of that was still passive aggressive, lol.

Something about being a writer makes it so that it's almost offensive to me for someone to suggest I use AI to do my work instead? Like, the day I reach the point where I let AI write something for me is the day y'all need to be checking me for brain damage because clearly I'm losing it

[hana-bobo-finch]

i hardly ever mention Glad for some reason. you. you know the one. the cousin. the mouthless one. bellona’s cousin that I have probably only mentioned once but she does actually do stuff in the plot. yknow. i only have concept sketches of her but uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[vaguely-concerned]

obsessed with what we're meant to read out of rook's expression when taash starts to walk away in this scene. it feels like such an emotionally dense response from them, especially since they've only known taash or anyone else involved in these scenes for all of five minutes

sorry about the abysmal gif quality one day I'll learn how to make gifs properly yet that day is not today. but hello. rook. rook hello. what is this about. what's up with that. what are you thinking about. (also taash seeing that reaction and turning around to clarify that it IS what they wanted before they leave because they're upset, not unkind. aww.)

also flashback to this set of expressions rook makes later on, after the fangscorcher fight, if rook tells taash they're actually a lot like them beneath it all. taash apparently just consistently brings out some very tender rueful rook faces I guess haha

[charredpeaches]

it's really funny whenever people talk about the randy shrine girl (aka norah) and think she's like some crazy entity but i've literally had conversations with her and she is, by far, one of the most normal people i've met online

[snapcracklepop-myjoints]

hey could you trigger tag guns?

short answer: no...

.../maybe/need more context

long answer:

I do not have confidence in my ability to consistently trigger tag things. I completely understand why people may want certain things tagged, but ultimately i am not a person who is going to be able to consistently remember to do so. I get a LOT of requests and unfortunately I can't fulfill them all. Most of the tags I use are due to digital hoarding compulsions as opposed to actively remembering to tag things. Additionally, I do reblog a lot of things that fall into that general category so if guns are an issue for you I think that following me is maybe not the best thing for your mental health(though ofc this is up to your discretion). Stay safe, take care of yourself, and keep advocating for yourself :)

Even longer answer:

I have a lot of followers and I really can't accommodate every single trigger tag request i get. If you are a mutual please feel free to message me and I will do my best to accomodate you (first and foremost, I would need much more information to know how to do so, eg, what counts as something that requires a tag, because "guns" is a category that I think a lot of things can fall into (on account of the fact that I'm autistic)) however if you are not a mutual/someone I have personally engaged with in the past, I would suggest you unfollow me as I (as mentioned) am really not capable of fulfilling every single tagging request I receive.

To be clear, this is not me saying "fuck you for wanting me to tag something", but rather "I do not have the capacity to fulfill every single request I get by people I don't know, especially without further specification, and I want everyone to be safe and comfortable".

non mutuals are also very welcome to dm for requests,

I will not share any info or be a bitch about you requesting a trigger tag lol just understand that I may not be able to fulfill it. but i would genuinely love to have a convo with you about it either way <3

I hope this helps :) please stay safe and make the best choice for your mental health. pls dont be afraid to contact me <3

[indigodawns]

.

[nururu]

I love debating with these dudebros that have these one piece podcasts bc they think they know everything and then it like "youre actually missing the entire point bc you're self absorbed" and then you introduce them to a whole new world.

[scarah-screeeaaammss]

I hate resellers. Like a lot. like okay I get it, sometimes that's the only way someone can keep themselves on their feet. I'm not mad at them. I'm pissed about people who clearly don't need to go thrifting and reselling who do it anyway and it's like bro. Come on. Don't you feel a little bad? don't you know that thrifting is already getting more expensive??

[kingspuppet]

@studies-of-the-soul || Unprompted

I love your post about the origin of Goro’s toy gun! Though tbh when I played P5 for the first time, I thought “oh the detective prince doesn’t know about Iwai’s shop. he just picked up whatever was at Toys R Us and it worked”

|| AHHHHH thank you!!! That is a pretty funny thought.

On a serious note though, it doesn't really surprise me that Goro's gun is a toy. I don't think he ever states it in vanilla P5, but he does mention in Royal that he used to play with them when he was little. And in 'Proof of Justice' it's similarly mentioned, and Joker even searches for what that phrase is supposed to mean only to reach the conclusion of it being a toy ray gun before immediately envisioning Goro as a child.

Goro always wanted to be a hero, and that toy perfectly encapsulates his meaning of justice and what it symbolizes to him. I also feel like it's a hint that deep down, through all his anger and hatred, he's still very much a child. He didn't get a chance to just be a kid. He was forced to grow up quickly because of his circumstances, and meeting Shido only perpetuated that problem for him. But he makes it very clear that he's held onto this idea of wanting to be the hero all of his life. I don't think it's necessarily childish for him to think this way, but I think that for all of his bravado and cockiness it shows that in the end he's still very much a kid. That despite maturing mentally and physically he's still lacking a lot in emotional maturity. His perception is very black and white, one or the other, when it's not purely fact based.

His justice is heavily rooted into wanting to be a hero from his childhood. And I feel like that's really represented in the fact that his gun is a toy and that his sword is basically a lightsaber.

[kafkaoftherubble]

Alright. I usually refrain from commenting on discourse posts—especially those that don't pertain to my usual domains because I always believe I either don't know enough or my opinions aren't something so enlightening it's worth sounding aloud—but I want to weigh in on what you reply to @/these-detestable-hands there.

Be warned, it is long—but again, if we hope to have some nuances in a conversation, brevity often does more harm than good.

I don't deny the prevalence of American (or even, as you brought up, Christian) soft power in globalization. But I don't think chalking this up as all "Americanization-is-white-washing" is remotely close to the full picture.

Why is these-detestable-hands' alternative inferences somehow an example of a "cultural Christianity" class of arguments instead of legitimate possibilities? Dude. They're themself are European. They are not White, either. When they said Europeans do don this type of aesthetics, they were just speaking from their experience growing up.

I'm from Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country that is Muslim-majority, socially conservative, and politically, visibly infused with anti-American rhetoric. And yet I've seen this same aesthetics, mixed and matched with others, among the people I live with. Mainland China has an even louder blaring of anti-American tone (it's considered a politically correct stance there), and yet some of their young people also show up in this sort of aesthetics.

Tell me: do Americans somehow have a monopoly on bun hairdos? Or that straight-short hair? Or that way of wearing a jacket? Or the man's facial hairstyle and white shirt? Or a bland t-shirt, that sort of dress, etc.?

Because I've seen similar fashion techniques in diverse cultures, past or present. The reason why they look so "whitewashed" here, methinks, is because these characters are fair-skinned. That's really it, innit? I could easily imagine a Malaysian Indian in the male's outfit, or a Chinese in that bun-haired Anna getup (bun-haired [发髻, article in Chinese] is a very ancient hairdo in Chinese history, going back about 6000 years ago or so, with many types being trendy throughout different dynasties). There's a plethora of people who could or do dress up like this. I've seen it.

Now, you might argue that this is because American soft power has become so embedded in globalization that people take up their cultural import without being aware of it. "Even if people from other countries like Malaysia adopt aesthetics like this, can we really say that it is completely devoid of American influence, considering how dominant it has become especially after World War II?"

No. I'll concede we cannot unequivocably say the American influence, however its shape or form, is absent. But I will also tell you that this argument is weak, because all cultural osmosis is multidirectional. Yes, there will be hints of American elements in certain fashion trends or aesthetics, but when it came to different parts of the globe, they always blend with local cultures (including fashion sense), and that includes Europe. By saying this "boring" aesthetics "can also be found in Europe", these-detestable-hands was (I hope I'm getting you right, mate) saying that Europeans can also just come up with this from their own local fashion sense regardless of how much American input there might be.

One of the things that really prompted me to write a response, other than your strange example for "cultural Christianity" (I'll get to that later), is the latent Americentric undertone when you refute these-detestable-hands' arguments. You made it sound like everything in this image can only be American inventions. That if I were to propose that maybe this isn't necessarily an example of "Americanization", I am being blissfully unaware of "cultural Americanism," because somehow other cultures are incapable of coming up with an aesthetic like this. Or even if they could, it's because they have seen the American Whites do it first, and so any similarity in other cultures' modern fashion sense is just following this American trend, instead of them coming up with something of their own and mix-matching different elements from different places that are not necessarily American in origin alone.

The Americentrist assumptions, therefore, are these:

People of other cultures or regions have no choice but to be subjected under American influence wholesale just because Americans have had really strong soft power tools for a few decades. This is ignoring how, in this modern era, different cultures and societies of the world often pick and choose what elements of a non-native culture they want to adopt, adapt, and reject.

People of other cultures/regions cannot possibly have come up with modern-day aesthetics that are similar to this^ on their own, even by mix-matching with whatever cultures they have seen. Even if they did, it's gotta' be Americanization at work, nothing else. To this, I wonder what un-Americanization in the modern era supposedly entailed. Are we Malaysians only allowed to be in our "traditional" outfits to be rid of "Americanization," for example? Am I, Malaysian Chinese, only allow to wear qipao or changshanzhuang to avoid the corrosive force that is "whitewashing" or the "American mold?" Do you know that the qipao is also not a purely Han Chinese cultural product, but influenced and adapted from another tribe(s) in China, among other things?

Of course that's not what you meant. I get it. My point here is to show how decrying this^ as "Americanization" without leaving room for other legitimate reasoning is itself Americentric.

"This is whitewashing; you guys just don't know it yet! They're being stripped off of their cultural background to fit into an American mold!" The non-American, who proposed a different viewpoint, are being told. But this isn't an American mold. This is a more of a modern mold—a bland fashion trend one could even say are

(1) fostered by the lack of options we have as consumers when it comes to fashion,

(2) the homogeneity of fashion sense propagated by celebrities (of different origins, I have to stress, but nonetheless they are rather homogenous because these are essentially one small elite group's preferred aesthetics being marketed toward a diverse population of different tastes),

(3) one of the safest ways to "look presentable" in the modern era when you don't want to spend too much time fussing over it, but sweatshirts, sweatpants etc. are not acceptable under your current circumstances,

and more.

It's a whole web of cause-and-effects, not a single line of it—which these-detestable-hands' arguments provide. So why dismiss them?

I suggest reading The Lies That Bind by Kwame Anthony Appiah, a Ghanian British-American philosopher. His chapter on "Culture" is exclusively devoted to topics like these, including the Americentric assumptions I marked out just now, but the entire book is a meditation on identities as a whole.

----

Also: no, the idea of "revenge is good" is not believed by Christians or "people brainwashed by Christianity" only. Revenge is simply retributive justice done by an individual, and the idea of retributive justice itself predates Christianity. It is seen in the Code of Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian legal code, for example. It's just an instinctive way of exacting justice, hence seemingly "good." I don't know what made you think it's a Christian idea, nor what examples had made you come away with that understanding.

Or maybe I misunderstood what you wrote there. In that case, my bad.

----

Important addendum (to avoid having people misunderstand my position):

I did not say Americanization is not a real phenomenon. I'm a Chi-Eng translator and my translation guide is explicitly made to follow American localization regardless of the reader-base's preferred English. That's one of the many examples of it.

What I'm saying is that this particular case is not a strong case of example of "Americanization", and that the other person's arguments also legitimate.

My friend blocked me because I wouldn’t stop sending him this picture

[hazellight11]

You ever think about describing a concept and think of a comparison and it goes from a kinda weird metaphor to "oh wait these are actually pretty similar" to "hold on. This is literally just this thing in a context i wouldn't necessarily think about it normally" the more you think about it

[howdydoodydodis]

I definitely wish I could see more takes on C3 from people who aren’t steeped in western cultural Christianity.

I think a huge problem I’m seeing in some attempts at meta with C3 is that there is a subset of viewers who do not understand the place, value, and meaning of real world religion. It breeds takes like “well throw the gods out! Who needs them! They caused characters and the world pain! Free Vax from the Raven Queen!”

I throw that last one in there because it is the most ridiculous yet frequent and is really the crux of the issue. Vax’s story is very much about faith and the importance of faith and devotion. If you place no value on that you’ll end up grossly misunderstanding the character and the nature of his tragedy.

I’m going to out myself as an atheist, but I think the issue with a lot of these takes are that they come from internet atheists who are either resentful of and hostile toward religion because of personal experiences or do not know any devout people in their lives who they respect and can empathize with. And while I am not trying to downplay the very real phenomenon of religious trauma, when healing from it it is crucial to realize that all spiritual traditions are not synonymous with the one that harmed you. I would really implore more people to explore why many good people find spiritual traditions and religion to be a source of solace, community, and meaning before writing off the idea wholesale as something only functioning as a means of power and control that people can be educated out of believing. I encourage you to branch out and here are some examples of things I’ve done to challenge my own judgement over the last ten years: read the writings of gay Catholics exploring the queerness of Jesus. Read some beautiful poetry written by a trans man who specializes in Anglican theology. Explore religious observances different from the ones you experienced and attend a Seder. Go if a coworker invites you to a celebration of Ganesh. Learn the significance of solstice celebrations because your coworker is officiating one for a Wiccan event. Break fast at sundown during Ramadan with in solidarity with your roommate.

Deciding that all fictional religion must be an allegory for a specific kind of toxic nationalistic prosperity gospel Christian cult found in America will only limit how you engage with both fiction and the real world. It took me a long time to get to this place about it and I hope I’ve put the spark of curiosity and not judgment into at least one person reading this.

[nitewrighter]

Snow White and the Fae Co-Op

Part One: I Didn't Vote For You

Okay so like--

I get why people thought we were all dwarves. Or made us all dwarves. Something between that. Collaborative storytelling what have you. It makes things significantly simpler, and it's a much punchier title than "Snow White and the Troll, the Redcap, the Púca, and four gnomes." (Of course I get top billing--I was her favorite.) And, okay, yeah, none of us came up past Snow's ribcage. Understandable.

But still it's like one of those things you don't want to start correcting people on it because you know you're going to spend the rest of your life correcting and concordantly explaining shit to people. But now it's like, you're pissed when we are dwarves, you're pissed when we're not dwarves, seriously! Pick a lane!

But okay, it seems everyone's pissed about this right now, so let's get pedantic.

We aren't sexy fairies.

Okay I didn't start that out right.

I guess it's easiest to explain this as... think of the ocean. So like, there are the scary sexy fairies who have the whole Succession/Bridgerton/White Lotus Fae Court thing going and they turn you into a deer and hunt you for sport, that's the Deep End. Then you have humans. Humans, in this metaphor, are land.

Me and my guys? We're tide pools.

A lot of stories are all like "Ougggh the magic is dying from this world ouggghhh the old ruined kingdoms" but in my opinion I think that's overall a case of Immortals Being Very Weird About Change In General. Like the tide, magic in this world rises and falls, and in the course of that you end up with this kind of hardy subgroup of fae who can survive in both High-Fae and High-Human environments. We're kind of our own ecosystem, but we're also kind of intermediaries between the Deep End Fae Court and the humans. We actually tend to broker a lot of more like, working class deals between the magical world and the human world. Maybe we get compared to the mob a lot. Whatever.

I'm getting into the weeds. This story isn't about me and the guys. This is about our girl, Snow. And trust me, I'm old as balls so before you get all 'Oh, one girl and seven guys? wHAt waS gOinG oN tHeRE?" (And you're absolutely disgusting for that, by the way). You need to understand that, on a species level, Snow was basically like keeping a very beautiful (albeit kind of bossy) sentient duck in the house. We loved our beautiful sentient duck and were impressed by the many talents of the beautiful sentient duck. No one desired the beautiful sentient duck on a romantic or physical level because, one, romantic and sexual desire for our subgroup of fae is very tedious, nuanced, and species-specific, and two, she was a duck. I mean she wasn't a duck, she was a human, but for us that's basically like being a sentient duck. All of those shitty "One girl seven guys" jokes I can definitely say are a result of human projection. Like again, you need to understand that my guys and me have basically gone through Magic Carcinization.

Again, I'm getting into the weeds.

All you need to know about Snow is that she broke into our house, she scares the shit out of us, and we would kill for her.

Okay you should probably know more than that.

Okay, so remember like 12 seconds ago when I said me and my guys are more of the working-class brokers between humans and Fae? And remember that Deep End I mentioned earlier? So like, the Deep End does deal with humans, but that tilts heavily into the 'Royalty and Miracles' side of things. Swords in stones. Swords in lakes. A fish that gives you all of the cosmic secrets of the universe when you eat it. That kind of stuff. That's kind of where Snow came from. She's a Fae weapon forged in a human womb. Hence why she scared the shit out of us.

How do I start this properly?

Once upon a time there were three human kingdoms. An icy kingdom in the north, a temperate kingdom in the west, and a, let's be real, damp kingdom in the east. Icy Kingdom had a queen, a beautiful queen, and the Deep End of the Fae love beautiful things. Beautiful Queen wanted more, and she made a deal with the Deep End of the Fae. She gave them her heart, and they give her a mirror that gives her sight beyond sight, and she used that to conquer Damp Kingdom in the East. They fought, but she could predict every one of their strategies with her mirror, all she needed to do was ask the mirror what this general is doing, or that Lord is doing, and bing-bang-boom, she took Damp Kingdom in a matter of months. And for good measure she took their baby boy prince, a pretty but frankly useless boy who, as the years went on and he grew, she largely kept for cup-bearing and harp-playing and decoration and also threatening to cut the head off of if Damp Kingdom ever stepped out of line. Because Damp Kingdom loved their pretty pretty baby boy prince as the last remnant of their royal bloodline, they were now thoroughly cowed.

So now the Queen turned her eyes to the Temperate Kingdom.

And this is when the Deep End Fae were like, "Hey okay you've conquered a neighboring kingdom, which we don't super-care-about for nebulous Fae Reasons, but for equally nebulous Fae Reasons, we don't want you to conquer Temperate Kingdom."

And the Queen was like, "Whatever."

And the Deep End Fae were like "Okay, then here's the part where we use that previous thing you gave us against you." And they tried to use her heart against her, but basically the Queen used the Mirror to circumvent the heart magic through a whole bunch of... jury-rigged alchemy shit? I don't know. This stuff was already way out of my pay grade. But what I do know is, the Deep End Fae realized they couldn't use the Evil Queen's previous deal as a failsafe against her, so they needed a new approach to stop her.

Temperate Kingdom was ruled by a kind king and queen. They also didn't want to be conquered, but things weren't looking good. Their capital city was under siege. The Kind Queen was pregnant and ready to pop--scratch that, currently popping. The king was mortally wounded while defending said Capital City. They dragged the mortally wounded king back to the bailey and he's all delirious ranting about his wife and the not-yet baby.

And then a figure in a mossy cloak appeared. They loomed over the mortally wounded king and they said very gently "Your blood will outlast you. Do you permit our assistance in this? Do you permit the cost?"

And the king was dying and he only understood like 40% of what was going on right now. He knew what was talking to him right now wasn't human. He knew you don't refuse a gift from the Fae. And he knew he was kind of safely in the 'fucked-up miracle' territory of Fae gifts though he didn't really understand the full extent of what that meant (and that's fair--no one does). He kind of assumed it would just be his own life as the cost of whatever the hell was happening here. So he's bleeding out and he nods. "If it will preserve the Kingdom," he says, "If it will save our child."

So we cut to the queen. The royal birthing is... okay it's going rough. Giving birth under siege will do that to you. In ideal circumstances you would have this hardcore butch midwife stick most of her forearm up the birth canal to reposition the baby and both the mother and child would live but... you didn't have that here. Instead, once more, the figure in the mossy cloak loomed over the Queen as she screamed through agonizing contraction after contraction. They touched two fingers to the queen's forehead and they gave her a flood of visions. Snow. Fire. Blood. Blackened earth. A little sapling growing from the body of a great and noble felled tree. And she looked to the figure in the mossy cloak. And she saw their face was kind.

The kind queen died in childbirth as the Evil Queen's forces overtook the capital city. The king was dead before he knew what deal he had made. The Evil Queen and her troops marched into the grand hall, only to see a figure in a mossy cloak seated on a little stool next to a wooden bassinet. The Evil Queen made that anime villain snort-scoff sound.

"So kind of you to offer your blessing in my victory," she said.

"This is not a blessing we offer," said the figure in a mossy cloak, "You have abused the gift given in our previous trade. The trust between us is breached. We now give you back that which you gave us. All you have won for yourself will rot. And as with all rot, new and rightful life will spring from it."

And the Evil Queen almost laughed at this at first, again, like "Whatever," but then after a few seconds she begins to do the math. In exchange for a mirror that gave her sight beyond sight, she gave the fae her heart, and then she jury-rigged a whole bunch of magical alchemical bullshit to protect herself from basically being shackled to the fae's will through her heart, because hey, if you can, that's what you do.

But what happens if your heart is no longer your heart?

What happens if the Fae bind your heart to someone else?

What happens if your heart is now wrapped in different royal blood from the kingdom the Fae told you specifically you're not supposed to conquer?

And that was Snow.

The most beautiful, weirdest, most uncanny-ass baby you've ever seen. AND she had that weird undercooked look all human babies have. A semi-formed little beast. Can you imagine looking at an infant and knowing it's going to burn down everything you've ever built? Can you imagine knowing that trying to smother this threat in its crib will burn everything down, too?

But you think, "It's okay. I can manage this. Plants can be molded in to bonsai and topiary. I can shape this to suit my needs, too. It just takes care. It just takes maintenance."

And that's when Evil Queen declares, "As a symbol of healing between our kingdoms, I will raise this child as my own." And she gives a sharp glance to the figure in the mossy cloak, and they give an assenting motion with their... probably head? Probably.

And she awkwardly takes up the baby in the crook of her arm. Wow awesome, she already has an amazing propaganda tool. There's no way this is going to backfire on her in like... 17 or 18 years.

Except you know it will. Because this is the "Fucked up miracles" side of shit we're talking about. And the Evil Queen is not on the side of miracles.

Fucking hell, that's all a mouthful, and Snow hasn't even met us yet! Look, I'm gonna take a smoke break and I'll get back to you in a minute, okay?

[txttletale]

Saw a tweet that said something around:

"cannot emphasize enough how horrid chatgpt is, y'all. it's depleting our global power & water supply, stopping us from thinking or writing critically, plagiarizing human artists. today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools. this isn't a world we deserve"

I've seen some of your AI posts and they seem nuanced, but how would you respond do this? Cause it seems fairly-on point and like the crux of most worries. Sorry if this is a troublesome ask, just trying to learn so any input would be appreciated.

i would simply respond that almost none of that is true.

'depleting the global power and water supply'

something i've seen making the roudns on tumblr is that chatgpt queries use 3 watt-hours per query. wow, that sounds like a lot, especially with all the articles emphasizing that this is ten times as much as google search. let's check some other very common power uses:

running a microwave for ten minutes is 133 watt-hours

gaming on your ps5 for an hour is 200 watt-hours

watching an hour of netflix is 800 watt-hours

and those are just domestic consumer electricty uses!

a single streetlight's typical operation 1.2 kilowatt-hours a day (or 1200 watt-hours)

a digital billboard being on for an hour is 4.7 kilowatt-hours (or 4700 watt-hours)

i think i've proved my point, so let's move on to the bigger picture: there are estimates that AI is going to cause datacenters to double or even triple in power consumption in the next year or two! damn that sounds scary. hey, how significant as a percentage of global power consumption are datecenters?

1-1.5%.

ah. well. nevertheless!

what about that water? yeah, datacenters use a lot of water for cooling. 1.7 billion gallons (microsoft's usage figure for 2021) is a lot of water! of course, when you look at those huge and scary numbers, there's some important context missing. it's not like that water is shipped to venus: some of it is evaporated and the rest is generally recycled in cooling towers. also, not all of the water used is potable--some datacenters cool themselves with filtered wastewater.

most importantly, this number is for all data centers. there's no good way to separate the 'AI' out for that, except to make educated guesses based on power consumption and percentage changes. that water figure isn't all attributable to AI, plenty of it is necessary to simply run regular web servers.

but sure, just taking that number in isolation, i think we can all broadly agree that it's bad that, for example, people are being asked to reduce their household water usage while google waltzes in and takes billions of gallons from those same public reservoirs.

but again, let's put this in perspective: in 2017, coca cola used 289 billion liters of water--that's 7 billion gallons! bayer (formerly monsanto) in 2018 used 124 million cubic meters--that's 32 billion gallons!

so, like. yeah, AI uses electricity, and water, to do a bunch of stuff that is basically silly and frivolous, and that is broadly speaking, as someone who likes living on a planet that is less than 30% on fire, bad. but if you look at the overall numbers involved it is a miniscule drop in the ocean! it is a functional irrelevance! it is not in any way 'depleting' anything!

'stopping us from thinking or writing critically'

this is the same old reactionary canard we hear over and over again in different forms. when was this mythic golden age when everyone was thinking and writing critically? surely we have all heard these same complaints about tiktok, about phones, about the internet itself? if we had been around a few hundred years earlier, we could have heard that "The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth."

it is a reactionary narrative of societal degeneration with no basis in anything. yes, it is very funny that laywers have lost the bar for trusting chatgpt to cite cases for them. but if you think that chatgpt somehow prevented them from thinking critically about its output, you're accusing the tail of wagging the dog.

nobody who says shit like "oh wow chatgpt can write every novel and movie now. yiou can just ask chatgpt to give you opinions and ideas and then use them its so great" was, like, sitting in the symposium debating the nature of the sublime before chatgpt released. there is no 'decay', there is no 'decline'. you should be suspicious of those narratives wherever you see them, especially if you are inclined to agree!

plagiarizing human artists

nah. i've been over this ad infinitum--nothing 'AI art' does could be considered plagiarism without a definition so preposterously expansive that it would curtail huge swathes of human creative expression.

AI art models do not contain or reproduce any images. the result of them being trained on images is a very very complex statistical model that contains a lot of large-scale statistical data about all those images put together (and no data about any of those individual images).

to draw a very tortured comparison, imagine you had a great idea for how to make the next Great American Painting. you loaded up a big file of every norman rockwell painting, and you made a gigantic excel spreadsheet. in this spreadsheet you noticed how regularly elements recurred: in each cell you would have something like "naturalistic lighting" or "sexually unawakened farmers" and the % of times it appears in his paintings. from this, you then drew links between these cells--what % of paintings containing sexually unawakened farmers also contained naturalistic lighting? what % also contained a white guy?

then, if you told someone else with moderately competent skill at painting to use your excel spreadsheet to generate a Great American Painting, you would likely end up with something that is recognizably similar to a Norman Rockwell painting: but any charge of 'plagiarism' would be absolutely fucking absurd!

this is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it is much closer to how AI art works than the 'collage machine' description most people who are all het up about plagiarism talk about--and if it were a collage machine, it would still not be plagiarising because collages aren't plagiarism.

(for a better and smarter explanation of the process from soneone who actually understands it check out this great twitter thread by @reachartwork)

today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools

i mean, this is true! AI tools are definitely going to destroy livelihoods. they will increase productivty for skilled writers and artists who learn to use them, which will immiserate those jobs--they will outright replace a lot of artists and writers for whom quality is not actually important to the work they do (this has already essentially happened to the SEO slop website industry and is in the process of happening to stock images).

jobs in, for example, product support are being cut for chatgpt. and that sucks for everyone involved. but this isn't some unique evil of chatgpt or machine learning, this is just the effect that technological innovation has on industries under capitalism!

there are plenty of innovations that wiped out other job sectors overnight. the camera was disastrous for portrait artists. the spinning jenny was famously disastrous for the hand-textile workers from which the luddites drew their ranks. retail work was hit hard by self-checkout machines. this is the shape of every single innovation that can increase productivity, as marx explains in wage labour and capital:

“The greater division of labour enables one labourer to accomplish the work of five, 10, or 20 labourers; it therefore increases competition among the labourers fivefold, tenfold, or twentyfold. The labourers compete not only by selling themselves one cheaper than the other, but also by one doing the work of five, 10, or 20; and they are forced to compete in this manner by the division of labour, which is introduced and steadily improved by capital. Furthermore, to the same degree in which the division of labour increases, is the labour simplified. The special skill of the labourer becomes worthless. He becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production, with neither physical nor mental elasticity. His work becomes accessible to all; therefore competitors press upon him from all sides. Moreover, it must be remembered that the more simple, the more easily learned the work is, so much the less is its cost to production, the expense of its acquisition, and so much the lower must the wages sink – for, like the price of any other commodity, they are determined by the cost of production. Therefore, in the same manner in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory, more repulsive, do competition increase and wages decrease”

this is the process by which every technological advancement is used to increase the domination of the owning class over the working class. not due to some inherent flaw or malice of the technology itself, but due to the material realtions of production.

so again the overarching point is that none of this is uniquely symptomatic of AI art or whatever ever most recent technological innovation. it is symptomatic of capitalism. we remember the luddites primarily for failing and not accomplishing anything of meaning.

if you think it's bad that this new technology is being used with no consideration for the planet, for social good, for the flourishing of human beings, then i agree with you! but then your problem shouldn't be with the technology--it should be with the economic system under which its use is controlled and dictated by the bourgeoisie.

[astrobydalia]

Summer fling❤️‍🔥

Relatioship observations

work by astrobydalia

❤️‍🔥 A thing about Virgo Venus is that since this is Venus’ fall they tend to be socially awkward or have struggles reading the room. The type to make jokes or remarks that are a bit too direct and low-key break the mood. They tend to behave in ways that comes across as robotic or dry

❤️‍🔥 A similar thing happens with Scorpio/Aries Venus too (venus is debilitated here as well) they tend to behave in ways that breaks social harmony by being a little too bold or even scandalous (Examples of this energy: Marilyn Monroe, Doja Cat)

❤️‍🔥In general, unless the rest of the chart says otherwise, debilitated Venus positions gives the native low charisma and lower ability to blend in socially. Their demeanor tends to be too forward or rub people the wrong way.

❤️‍🔥What is up with Leo placements and becoming romantically obsessed with people that reject them? Either that or they enjoy perusing people who they "shouldn't" be with like authority figures or someone that is way out of their league

❤️‍🔥Just like Jupiter in a woman's chart tells you how her husband will be, I feel like Jupiter in man's chart will tell you what kind of husband he'll be to be honest

​❤️‍🔥​ Whenever I had Vertex in the 5th house of a Solar Return, romance was a significant thing during those years!! However it was always flings, situationships and stuff like that. The sign with gives more nuance like one year I had it in Sagittarius and I had a fleeting romance with a foreigner

❤️‍🔥 With debilitated moon (Capricorn/Scorpio Moon) I've noticed these natives tend to believe or feel like love is conditional. Things like loyalty, trust and care are earned and come with a price or you have to jump thorough endless hoops first in order to get them. They refuse to be vulnerable so they expect the other person to show their cards first and then MAYBE if you earn their trust they'll open up too but good luck with that LMAO.

❤️‍🔥 That being said, I noticed men with Capricorn/Scorpio Moon tend to marry a woman that is very self-righteous and controlling. Their choice for a life partner tends to be... yikes

❤️‍🔥 Capricorn/Scorpio Moon can be the type to be skeptical of the idea of true love. The difference is Scorpio Moons are most likely to convert into the lovey-dovey train once they find their person cause being water sign deep down they crave that intimacy. However Capricorn Moons are most likely to freeze their heart out even when their soulmate is right in front of them, unfortunately the more time passes the more cap moons tend to harden their hearts

❤️‍🔥 Scorpio Moon’s greatest fear is to be alone I’ve noticed. And yeah nobody wants that but trust me for Scorpio Moon this is a HUGE thing. When I say they crave intimacy I mean they CRAVE intimacy. If they could hot glue their loved ones to their body so they’re connected to them for life like siamese twins, they would.

❤️‍🔥 Taurus Moons are just as obsessive and sexual as scorpio moons, literally copy paste. They can also be just as toxic when underdeveloped. The difference is taurus moons are more nurturing and if they don't want you to leave they'll create a paradise or "golden cage" for you (vs Scorpio moons who tend to resort to emotional or mind games for this purpose). I was also surprised to discover how needy taurus moons become once they like you?? Idk how to explain it but it's like they wanna insert you in every aspect of their lives and low-key gatekeep you LMAO. On the other hand Scorpio Moons will push you away and play cat and mouse for a while if they see themselves catching feelings

❤️‍🔥In my opinion both moons (Scorpio and taurus) tend to seek possessiveness or control in their relationships and they usually have the upper hand or the most power I've noticed

❤️‍🔥Praying for gen z babies born under Scorpio Venus cause a lot of them have that placement square Aquarius Neptune and that combo is.... ooof. Romanticizing toxic delusional love that brainwashes the shit out of them YALL NEED TO WAKE THE FUCK UP

❤️‍🔥 When someone has their planets in your 12th house sign you have a fogged perception of this person, you tend to idolize them cause there are parts of them that you're blind to. However this person will feel confident in knowing your psyche as well as the unconscious motives behind your actions. This person has a knack to naturally know how to appeal to unconscious desires or fears you weren't even aware you had. For this reason you'll find this person either triggering and scary OR very addictive cause it almost feels like they penetrate your soul

❤️‍🔥 With that being said, people with planets in your 12th house are the best therapists for you or best people to vent to. Water houses in general can apply, but I feel like 12th house is better for this cause it rules over spiritual and emotional healing/cleansing specifically. This person can help you untangle your unconscious and you can feel sooooo much relief after talking or being with them. This will only apply if you trust them and they have good intentions ofc, otherwise they'll actually feed into your unconscious fears and make them worse

❤️‍🔥 People with placements on your 8th house secretly dislike and/or envy you, but still feel the need to be close with you cause they low-key wanna tear you down, wanna see you fail, wanna keep taps on you to make sure aren't too successful. I've seen SOOOOO many toxic fake friendships with this synastry... Although I've previously talked about positive manifestations of this overlay too, frankly this dynamic is what I've observed for the most part with this synastry if im honest with you

❤️‍🔥 I totally agree with @zeldasnotes when she said 8th house synastry is only good/tolerable when there’s mutual sexual attraction between the two, otherwise it’s annoying af. I believe this is because the two people can easily use sex to release all the intensity and tension between them instead of letting it build up or channeling it through toxic emotions like envy

❤️‍🔥 Okay but have you ever been genuinely loved by an Aries placement? When their heart is in it, they'll have unshakable loyalty. They’d move mountains for you, kill and fight for you. They are THE ride or dies

❤️‍🔥 A thing that I've seen a lot with women who have debilitated Jupiter (Virgo, Gemini, Capricorn) is that they have a husband that prioritized his work over their marriage/family. The husband is often away due to work or duties or just emotionally unavailable in general. These women tend to give up something about their life after marriage because they had to accommodate to their husband's life style, like if she has to move or give up her own job to be with him she will. For example: Grace Kelly (Gemini Jupiter) who quit acting after marring the prince of Monaco. Hailey Bieber (Capricorn Jupiter) who was exposed to a lot more public attention after marrying Justin and she said herself she's had to learn to adapt that being new part of her life now

❤️‍🔥 Another big thing I've seen with Saturn influence in the 7th house is that your spouse will have big, BIG ambitions. People only talk about Jupiter or Venus but to be real with you, Saturn is an underrated indicator for your spouse being wealthy. This placement indicates that your spouse is stablished, successful and can easily provide stability for you. All the people I've seen with this placement married someone who had a business!!!!, their own house, a successful career, a household name, a higher position, etc

What I mean by Saturn influence on the 7th (for both Vedic and Tropical): Saturn in the 7th house Capricorn or Aquarius DSC 7th ruler in the 10th house (also maybe 11th house) or vice versa Saturn darakarka

❤️‍🔥 Mars-Pluto aspects definitely will make someone have pretty extreme kinks

❤️‍🔥 I’ve seen this a lot in Pisces Moons and Aries Moons that they low-key wanna be babied in a relationship or they subconsciously end up being the one who’s more coddled and taken care of by their partner

❤️‍🔥 Aries and Gemini placements in the composite chart is indicative of a relationship that likely won't last long-term. I've seen this placement in long lasting marriages too but their relationships gave off fling vibes, really playful, they type where people said they wouldn't last

❤️‍🔥 I’ve seen Saturn in the 7th house synastry manifesting as the opposite of commitment. The Saturn person blocks off the possibility of having a committed relationship with the house person and the house person feels abandoned

❤️‍🔥 With that being said Saturn in synastry/composite can indicate rejection in that area and things one or both parties will deprive the other of or deny them. For example Saturn in the 8th synastry/composite can mean one person refused to have sex with the other or there are many conditions and restrictions in the sex life of both

❤️‍🔥 Aquarius and Capricorn Mars/Venus are SO good at hiding their attraction from you. They'll watch from afar for some time before making some move meanwhile you'll be clueless of their interest

❤️‍🔥 Moon square Neptune is an aspect that makes someone emotionally insecure, the type to need constant reassurance that you still love them. Can also be emotionally manipulative in very subtle almost undetectable ways

❤️‍🔥 Earth Venus find it very easy to engage in casual dating/hook up culture because they know how to not get too attached. They have a hyper awareness of what purpose a certain relationship is serving them at the moment so they act accordingly

❤️‍🔥 On the other hand I’ve noticed Air Venus natives have a tendency to play around because they know they get the ick quickly. But it's all fun and games until they end up catching feelings accidentally 😭

❤️‍🔥 My experience having Gemini Jupiter in the 7th house: Yes all my suitors/dates have been foreigners but the cultural difference was never that big. They usually came from a country close to mine or their cultural background was very similar from mine

work by astrobydalia