#mea critical

[omegastation]

GamingBolt just did a vid about being worried about the next Mass Effect game based on what they saw in DA:TV. The video has critical content and spoilers, and at some point there is a comment about MEA. It's one example of what I saw recently. My post here is without spoilers really, it's more about what makes a game a "good" addition to a franchise and about the next ME game in this context.

I don't know how to formulate this in a way that is clear enough, but I think there is a difference between a less quality game in a larger franchise and a game that is not recognizable as a part of the whole, that makes players feel like there is a disconnect, like they're no longer in the same universe, either because of the tone, lore, dialogues, etc.

And it's all up to interpretation but I can't help but think MEA, for all its flaws and faults, was very much a Mass Effect game. How you can achieve that ME essence with added immersion, I don't know, it's quite magical, but I think they did it with MEA. If you ask me, it's a solid part of the franchise. It wasn't a perfect game though, and that's the thing: there are some things it did right, and some that could have been better.

But point is, a game that creates a disconnect with players is off to a bad start, because a successful franchise and immersive universe are all about consistency and coherence. And that is how you create a fanbase, with people who really love your universe. If it falls apart and people no longer feel connected to the universe, it seems like the content itself could still be quite good but it wouldn't matter that much to fans. It's not about rejecting change - because it can be quite good - but you have to have that essence, you have to make it all "fit" somehow.

Games also cost a lot and there is a trust that we sorta put in companies when they give us franchise titles. You buy a Mass Effect game because it's a Mass Effect game, but you don't plan on buying "not really has that Mass Effect essence I like but still called Mass Effect" game.

And so I find the recent and general criticism of MEA not as interesting as it could be - to me, MEA did a lot of things right. I can take a game that has a lot of flaws if it's part of a whole and it feels like a solid universe to step into. I don't feel like it's the ultimate example of Bioware messing it up, basically. And sure, we could argue about linear vs open worlds, but even so.

In the end, my worry about the next game is what I'm talking about here: that it could potentially not feel like a Mass Effect game. And that's probably why Gamble tried to reassure us, even if done in a sort of awkward way. Let's hope it will be fine; and if not, I think I'll just rely even more on what feels like Mass Effect to me (trilogy and MEA).

[stormcallart]

Hiii I noticed that you really like Mass Effect, and I was curious how you felt about Mass Effect: Andromeda? I really liked it but it seems like everyone who’s a Mass Effect fan hates it

Hi! thanks for the question & sorry my answer is a bit long winded.

When it first came out I was a huge fan of Andromeda. The promise of DLC for the quarian arc and more was exciting. I only played it once to completion and haven't been able to bring myself to play through it again so i am only going off of how the game played right at the beginning (within the first few weeks).

It's a great game but to me it just isn't a mass effect game. The combat is vastly improved and switching between biotics, tech,etc is really fun! but I think the game suffered greatly from huge empty worlds. Like yea, there were enemies but it didn't feel like the grind/driving was worth the outcome. there wasn't that looming threat that was felt throughout the trilogy for me. That and the RPG aspect as well as the "your choices really matter" seemed to be little to none. the squadmates were subpar compared to the OG crew to me. though i love vetra.

There was so much promise and I think I suffered from hype quite a bit, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But when they dropped the game altogether to focus on anthem is when a piece of my joy for ME:A died.

so I don't HATE it, but its kinda like a "eh, okay well...that happened."

[gxldencity]

"Andromeda actually respects the lore unlike veilguard!!" anyway remember in the prologue and your dad suddenly has fucking biotics despite never being a biotic in his life so he never was exposed to eezo in utero and never had the second exposure that triggered his biotics which is like....the lore for botics since ME1 and the reason behind this truly is bc the robot in his head can do everything, including somehow, somehow giving him the eezo nodes on his neck to allow for biotic manipulation

And then, and then, he transfers this to you so you too can be a biotic without the sufficient eezo exposure and no body, not even the powerful biotic in your ship, who was trained by asari bc her biotics are that powerful says anything about this specifically

[coffeeworldsasaki]

Veilguard is full of flaws sure, just like every other game in the series, but as BioWare fans have done since me3 it's all shitting on the new game and changing their minds when a new one comes out

[persephinae]

i know this video is 7 years old but man it's satisfying to hear someone talk about how creatively bankrupt MEA was

[enlichened]

All the posts in the mea tag keep just being people criticizing datv... illness inducing

[clericofshadows]

getting a comment notification on AO3: ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

getting a comment notification on nexus mods: ┬┴┬┴┤(･_├┬┴┬┴

[ulkaralakbarova]

Shadow of a Film: A Critical Review of Tyler Perry’s 'Mea Culpa'

⭐ Rating: 1 out of 5. I try to avoid criticizing films negatively, not just out of fear of hurting anyone’s feelings but also from a clear understanding that what I might dislike could be loved by someone else. Personal bias is always present when you pen a piece like this. However, when it comes to Tyler Perry’s “Mea Culpa,” I must pause to reflect and sift through the entire film I’ve seen to…

[splendidemendax]

one of my fav pieces of classical scholaship is a.e. housman's series of five (five!) articles ripping arnold palmer's edition of the heroides to absolute shreds.

i love them dearly but they do kind of go on (again: five) and he's made his point that palmer was a shitty editor within like. the second page of the first one so by the time i get to the fifth i'm like "stop stop he's dead already!" which i meant in a metaphorical sense.

however.

i just opened up a copy of said edition and realized palmer was literally fucking dead when housman wrote these articles (the edition was finished by his mentee and published posthumously) and now i simply cannot stop laughing

[vulpixelates]

re: last rb, wyll reminds me so much of liam costa in that if he was a white man (or an alien/fantasy race but voiced by a white man 🙃), he would have been the fan favorite amongst people who are attracted to men and i would have to block his tag bc of how insufferable y'all would be about him flfkfjdjd

if astarion wasn't literally the whitest possible man no one would like him - just a HINT of browness or blackness would have branded him unlovable and problematic in the eyes of the fandom at large. he would get zero grace. and yet, what is wyll even guilty of? being NICE? get out of here lol

do you know what it takes for me, a misandrist lesbian, to defend a cis man in a video game. it takes so much to get me to give a fuck about men. but y'all do this EVERY FUCKING TIME and it's so exhausting

DO BETTER

[leia-leek]

EA is a triple A gaming company worth billions. But BioWare? It's a subsidiary that is smaller than you think. (EA has about 13k employees, but BW has about 500).

Not pre-ordering or buying on the day of release isn't going to send a message to EA to improve its practices. It's only going to hurt BioWare and their remaining employees. (This isn't aimed at people who can't afford it, or don't like the game(s), or don't like what they've seen so far, or are very skeptical and want to hold off. I'm talking to people who are excited about the game and have the $60 to spare.)

Yes, there are things to criticize about BioWare and EA, I get it, I really do. What happened to Mary Kirby and those like her is awful. Fuck them for that, truly. The merchandise packages that don't include the game, kinda scummy. But if you don't take that as a sign that EA is pushing down, hard, on BioWare, then I don't know what to tell you. Do you think BioWare is somehow immune from EA's scrutiny? BioWare has two big misses in their recent history, after MEA and Anthem, they are on thin ice.

Will the game be buggy on release? Maybe. They do have a history of it. Hell, DAO is still buggy af, but we love it anyway. Will the game be bad? Possibly. There are story elements in each game that still piss me off to this day. It is a gamble, but if you like what you see and are excited, there is no reason not to support the franchise you love. Do you want more Dragon Age games? Do you want more Mass Effect games? If yes, then the best way to get more games is to buy this game.

The only thing that will happen if DATV sales suck, will be for EA to believe that Dragon Age games no longer sell and to nix or hold off on all future projects for it. By waiting for it to be on sale or pirating it, you could very well damn the future of BioWare and the DA franchise. You're not fucking up EA when you choose not to buy DATV, you are screwing BioWare, which is not the same as EA. BioWare can be dissolved, but EA won't. They won't care, EA will happily get rid of something that isn't making them money. EA is not gonna be hurt by DATV doing poorly in sales, they have their sports franchises that will always make them money. It will only hurt BioWare and the remaining developers. Do you like Weekes? Epler? Busche? Support them!

So if you are excited about Dragon Age: The Veilguard and want to see more Dragon Age games, don't let anyone convince you not to buy it, or pre-order it. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for doing so. If you have the money and like what you see, I encourage you to buy it and show support for your favorite franchise.

(Those worried about the SAG-AFTRA strike, don't be, DATV isn't included in the strike. More here.)

[omegastation]

Similar to the Khalisah thing it's always bothered me how much some people in the fandom relish shooting Sloane in the back in andromeda, like all the underhanded things Reyes does is justifiable but the black woman being rude to you is an unforgivable sin

Ah, let's be honest here. Sloane is a bit more than just rude, she does terrible things.

And it's not the same situation (because Khalisah is an innocent civilian) but I agree Sloane is not seen as fairly as Reyes is. I tend to think both can be terrible but before my hiatus, Reyes was a bit idolized and Sloane was always the villain of the story. Sloane's flaws were relentlessly pointed out and if, like me, you weren't a fan of denying said flaws, you had to acknowledge them in discussions. You had to say "yes, Sloane can be this or that". But no one would ever really do the same on the other side of that conversation, at the time, so it didn't really feel fair or even interesting to discuss those two. I hope things have changed a bit? It's hard for me to tell. Maybe people who are really cool about those characters tend not to get involved in discussions. Too much energy spent.

Another point to consider: when people don't see Sloane so negatively, they focus more on the turian by her side than on her. Sloane's relationship with Kaetus is really special, but Sloane on her own is fascinating enough.

Anyway, I highly recommend reading the book Nexus Uprising to those who haven't read it yet and want to know more about her and why she's like this in MEA.

[queenofthekings]

Babe, wake up, new prompt coming!

I found this cute image on Pinterest and it had me thinking: what if reader spends a whole afternoon crafting these little messages and then she sneakily hides them around Eddie's stuff. Every time he finds one, goes to reader and gives her a kiss, then stores it in a tin box 🩷💋

𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼

Summary: You make love letters for Eddie.

Author's note: Mea I'm so sorry it took me forever to write this request! I hope you enjoy it! Also thank you to @eddiemunsons-missingnipple, @ryan-waddell11 and @orchidmunson for their endless encouragement <3

CW: None, just a whole lotta fluff and Eddie being a dork.

Word count: 1.2k

Any hate will not be tolerated, constructive criticism is welcomed.

Being at Eddie’s apartment alone while he was away working wasn’t an uncommon thing for either of you, he had given you a key to his apartment for a reason, after all. Although you two hadn’t made the full step of moving in together yet, you still spent a lot of time at his apartment whenever you could fit it into your schedule.

You were sat at Eddie’s kitchen table with every kind of stationary imaginable scattered all around you; every shade of pink and white paper, felt tip pens, glitter and endless amounts of glue.

Since Eddie’s phone had broken several days beforehand and he was far too busy with work and couldn’t fit it within budget for the month to get it fixed, you decided to make love notes for him to read every day. You made notes for every occasion; if he felt sad, if he did something amazing, he missed you or even just needed to be told he was loved.

Although your arts and crafts skills weren’t perfect and you ended up with far too much glitter and glue all over your fingers, you were still proud of the notes you were able to make. You knew your art teacher from primary school would be proud of what you’d made, even if when you had lessons with her she hated your guts.

You had almost finished the final note and put them in a jar by the time Eddie walked inside, you felt him gently scratch the top of your head before wrapping his arms around you, pressing a kiss to the side of your head. “Well this is a nice surprise to come home to.”

You felt the warm burn inside your stomach as you squeezed his arm, happy to be back where you felt like you belonged. “I missed you, of course I’d be here.”

It had only been a couple of days since you last saw each other, but it always felt like an eternity. Being with Eddie was the only place you truly felt safe, it was like coming home every time he brought you into his arms.

Before you and Eddie had gotten together; you’d never believed in that kind of stuff, that home could be a person instead of a place and you thought the people who said that stuff were talking nonsense. But now you understood them, and you just had to wait to find your person.

Eddie glanced over at the mess on the kitchen table, not daring to touch anything with his dirty fingers from working on cars all day. “Whatcha doing here, princess?”

You leaned into him, rubbing his arm with your hand. “It’s a surprise.”

He placed a hand over his eyes once you revealed it was a surprise. “I’m not looking, I swear!” he moved away from you, keeping his hand over his eyes, causing you to laugh. “I’m gonna go have a shower, you wanna order a pizza?”

“Sure,” you answered through your continued laughter as Eddie felt around his apartment to get to the bathroom, hitting his feet and legs on various pieces of furniture along the way. Your boyfriend was an absolute dork, but you loved it far too much, although you knew he acted like that just to make you laugh and he couldn’t ever get enough of that laugh.

You waited until he was safely in the shower to finish the last note and put it into the jar before promptly hiding it in your backpack, being sure Eddie would never find it accidently, not that he’d ever go through your belongings, but you were still cautious. After washing your hands thoroughly, you cleared the kitchen table of your project and grabbed your laptop to order pizza.

Sure, phoning Dominos to place your order was easier but Eddie’s pizza orders were always special to put it simply. That man couldn’t settle for a simple margarita pizza to save his life, nay, he had to have some weird combination that changed in a frequent basis. His current favourite pizza? Tandoori chicken and burger sauce with stuffed crust. As odd as it sounded, you did have a slice and it was pretty good, so you couldn’t exactly hate him for that.

You’d just finished placing the order when Eddie came out donned in just a towel, another towel in his hair trying to dry it before lowering it to cover his face completely. “Is it safe to come out?”

You let out another laugh, nodding your head. “Yes, you muppet, it’s safe. Pizza’s been ordered and it should be here in a bit.”

Taking the towel away from his face, he smirked at you and began to slowly walk across his apartment towards you, deliberately allowing his towel to slip down his body. Watching him with a smirk matching his, you shook your head. “Don’t even think about it, mister, we got pizza coming and I don’t wanna get interrupted by the doorbell again.”

He pouted and pulled up the towel, sulking his way into the bedroom. He came back a few minutes later in his usual jeans and dark red hoodie, one you’d frequently steal from him to wear when the weather got a bit cold.

You closed your laptop lid as he wrapped his arms around you again, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of your head once you rested your back against his chest. The pair of you stayed in content silence until the loud knock on the door to signal your pizzas had arrived. You began to get up, but Eddie placed his hands on your shoulders to keep you seated, “I’ll get them baby,” he murmured into your hair before answering the door.

Eddie had fallen asleep after devouring his pizza and watching a season and a half of Derry Girls while cuddling with you on the couch, his head nestled into the crook of your neck, feeling his breath on your skin with his arms wrapped tightly around your middle, keeping you close to him.

You slowly got out of his grasp, being careful not to wake him up, although Eddie was quite a deep sleeper and not a lot of things woke him up. As quietly as possible, you moved around his apartment, tidying up the pizza boxes before turning off the TV and putting a blanket over Eddie.

Getting the jar out of your backpack, you began to place the notes around Eddie’s apartment; on every table, in some books, in the wardrobe, on the fridge and in every single pocket you could think of. Once you’d finished, you gently shook Eddie awake just enough to get him in bed and properly asleep before you followed him soon after, cuddling into him as you easily fell asleep.

In the morning, you were woken up by an endless amount of kisses all over your face, lips, neck, chest, and hands. At first, you were too sleepy and groggy to fully realise what was happening but as you slowly started to wake up, you moved Eddie’s kisses up to your lips and kissed him back. “What’s all the kisses for?” you whispered against his lips.

Eddie gave you a couple more kisses before answering your question. “I found some of your notes, and I thought since my girl was being so loving with her notes; I thought I would be loving back and wake her up with as many kisses as I can give her before work.”

[mitigatedchaos]

Kontextmaschine is Dead

(~1,000 words, 5m)

Noted blogger @kontextmaschine is presumed dead, following the discovery that the sole resident at his most likely residence was found deceased during a wellness check initiated by concerned Redditors.

Prior to his last post on Aug 22, which indicated a serious health problem, he reported taking over twice the dose of creatine he had been taking at the beginning of his lengthy post-COVID health saga, in which he also reported becoming bisexual, having "zero" anxiety, gaining 3D vision after years of not having it, becoming incredibly convincing, and having to learn to walk and use his muscles properly again. At the time, he felt he was becoming trimmer and physically stronger, and reported engaging in a long project of yard work, although photos from the inside of his house generally looked somewhat messy.

A Tumblr user who met him briefly in person after the beginning of the health saga but before these most recent events reported that he was friendly, charismatic, hospitable, and clean, but "physically, a mess," with motor control issues on one side of his body.

Topics of discussion were similar to the content of kontextmaschine's blog, such as differences in east and west coast government in America, said to be "totally on brand," but it was said that the prolific poster seemed "less self-grandiose" in person.

Redditors theorize that the decline of kontextmaschine's health following his first self-report of COVID-19 infection may have been due to undiagnosed brain cancer, which could be more consistent with observed changes in behavior than the after-effects of a viral infection, given that most reports of "long covid" are about effects like fatigue, and not total loss of anxiety or alteration of sexual orientation.

Despite multiple suggestions, from both anonymous and pseudonymous users, kontextmaschine refused to seek professional medical care for his condition.

Regarding the mourning of public figures, in 2018, a period of increased Progressive sensitivity during the Trump Administration, kontextmaschine wrote,

through the years realized that through whatever blind groping the ‘90s-ass “edgelords” were desperately trying to save us from this, through proper gatekeeping and filtering at first I’d thought it was gratuitous and supported it being relaxed, maybe not shaming everyone who publicly mourned a suicide, mea culpa, mea culpa, I have debts to pay

In 2019, he added:

That was how we kept the internet culture from growing mawkish and cry-bullyish: basically, if you were so weak as to get weepy over corpsemeat you got cancelled, the shame would follow you forever and you’d never be allowed to forget it.

Given his writing, it is likely that kontextmaschine would not have supported excessive public mourning over his death, though in 2017, following the theft of his motorcycle, when the popular blogger @argumate jokingly criticized him by writing, "no references to pinball, no insight into historical Americana, this isn’t the kontext I signed up for," kontextmaschine wrote,

“when bad shit happens people mock me accurately” is the community I’ve been looking for my whole life so

Like argumate, perhaps the most famous of the rationalist-adjacent bloggers on Tumblr, screenshots of kontextmaschine's Tumblr posts would end up on outside websites.

Kontextmaschine was generally considered an interesting, if controversial writer. One Tumblr user characterized him as a member of the "obnoxious Tumblr right," though another user asked, "wait, how is kontextmaschine is right wing?" After another user claimed that the nuclear bombing of Oregon would be a net improvement in the world due to kontextmaschine's residence in Portland, tumblr user @random-thought-depository wrote a 2,400 word theory post arguing that kontextmaschine's philosophy was a means to coordinate to join a future political coalition favoring the formation of a more brutal and oppressive hierarchy in pursuit of his own advantage.

Though kontextmaschine's ideology advocates that humanity should adopt "r-selection," meaning more offspring with less investment in each (or youth, sex, and death), this blog dissented against the coalition theory, arguing that motorcycles, kung fu, women, Hollywood, and not having to report to HR are all traditionally cool, and the causality of the kontextmaschine ideology could easily run the other way.

Though he had a period of identifying as female in his youth, appropriately LGBTQ for a Tumblr user, his 2011 statement of principles, including "the lesser yields to the greater" and "suffering is the mark of a wrong person," and general body of work, could be described as a strain of right-wing thought, though not of the traditionalist Christian or rational technocratic varieties.

Prior to the post-covid health saga, kontextmaschine's health posting was primarily about his bipolar disorder, with both manic and depressive phases.

Kontextmaschine maintained generally friendly relations with other bloggers in his sphere of discourse, sometimes debating but rarely aggressive, except in response to anonymous hatemail. In response to one particular piece of hatemail, kontextmaschine stated that as a writer, of course his primary form of influence would be his posts.

In a post chain reblogged by dozens of Tumblr users, multiple Tumblr users wrote that they enjoyed his writing and are disappointed by his death, describing him as a unique thinker that will not be easily replaced. Several felt that there was not much they could have done, as after returning from his covid infection, he was not taking medical advice.

One Tumblr user wrote, "rip. Inspirational manic poster," while long-time and prolific poster argumate described him as, "one of the bloggers of all time."

Internet users speculate that Kontextmaschine is survived by his outdoor cat, Badger, about whom he posted frequently. He may also be survived by other members of his family, with whom he apparently did not live, and rarely spoke about.

It is recommended that enthusiasts of kontextmaschine's blog make backups of his writing for archival purposes.

[coffeeworldsasaki]

Shit blowing up before the game came out is what ruined mass effect Andromeda (WHICH WAS A FUCKING GOOD GAME) and if people do that again with dragon age I'm going to start killing. WE HAD ONE PERSON WHO DIDN'T WORK THERE FOR WHO REMEMBERS HOW MANY YEARS SAID THEY TRIED AI AND THAT IT WAS SO BAD HE DOESN'T THINK IT CAN EVER WORK AND PEOPLE START SAYING BIOWARE IS WRITING DA4 WITH AI. SHUT UP

[viv-hollande]

Ok, so this is a post that I should have made sooner. I've been somewhat out of the loop with regards to current events and the state of discourse on this website courtesy of a pretty serious depressive episode from which I am only just now recovering. As I have emerged from this state I have been pushed towards a conclusion about this website and the state of discussion around the ongoing Israel-Gaza War that I had thus far avoided due in part to my barely possessing the energy to keep myself alive and due in part to my denial that the conclusion could be true. But that denial can no longer hold.

It has become openly apparent that the pro-Palestinian camp on this website has become popularly infused with a degree of blatant, aggressive antisemitism that I, in my naivety thought impossible in the days just after October 7. I am trying to avoid turning this into a mea culpa because that would be unproductive and feel self-serving, but I do feel an obligation to admit that I disregarded prescient warnings from Jewish users whose warnings I dismissed as over-blowing a problem that I felt was real, but more limited in scope than they made out.

I'm neither an idiot nor am I ignorant. I am well aware of the long history of antisemitism in leftist politics and in the Palestinian Liberation movement. Back at the beginning of this crisis I was prepared to see the occasional instance of antisemites using the inevitable, overwhelming Israeli retaliation as an excuse to air their hateful politics. I was prepared to see both the well-meaning but ignorant and the malicious alike sharing tweets from antisemitic pro-Palestine accounts, spreading and normalizing low-grade, subtle antisemitism. Make no mistake, this should have been condemned. Antisemitism, like all bigotries, has no 'safe' level. There is no background level of antisemitism that society should just accept as normal. But I was more focused on the inevitable cacophony of suffering that Israel would almost certainly begin meting out, and so I failed to act.

The fatal blow to my denial was the increasing prevalence of the use of quotation marks around the word "Israel" and "Israeli". The first few times I saw this, I didn't really understand what it meant. Still laboring under the belief that antisemitism was a manageable problem on the left, I was certain that most of the users on this site, well-intentioned, goodhearted, critically thinking people that they were, would have recognized and called out even disguised antisemitism before it took over a good 20-40% of all posts about the conflict. I was a damn naive fool. For those, like past me, who have not cottoned on to the meaning of the quotation marks, they have become a way to express the denial of the legitimacy or even existence of, individually or all together, the State of Israel, the Israeli people, or the right of either Jews or Israelis to identify as Israelis.

CONGRATULATIONS TUMBLR! You have successfully revived from depths of 4chan neo-Nazi boards the (((fucking echoes))).

Are you serious? Are you fuckers for real? This, right here, encapsulates the pitch-black absurdity of this whole situation and why I remained in denial for so long. Never, in a million years, would I imagine that the proudly pro-Social Justice, anti-fascist, 100% Certified SAFE-SPACE(tm) website would end up using the same language as the goddamn Nazis on 4chan. I thought this website was smarter than that. But noooo, it turns out that I was a damn naive fool.

This was where the post was originally going to end. I say my piece, hope to change a few minds, and commit myself to actually fighting antisemitism instead of sitting back and dismissing the problem. But I figure, while I'm here and while I still have the driving forces of anger and guilt pushing me along, I may as well put pen to paper and spew forth my other thoughts on the ongoing crisis. I am thus compiling a much longer post detailing my thoughts on some aspects of the current situation. [EDITED ~1:25 AM GMT, 5 Dec 2023: add link to finished post] That post will definitely be long, probably be angry, possibly wrong on some aspect of fact, and will absolutely be pretentious, preachy, self-righteous and hubristic to a positively Hellenistic degree. Brief, non-comprehensive summary so you can decide whether or not get mad at me ahead of time;

Israel does apartheid, or near enough for government work.

Israel is definitely conducting a campaign of forced displacement, possibly amounting to ethnic cleansing, but I remain unconvinced of the claim of genocide.

Hamas may or may not be a anti-colonialist revolutionary group, but it definitely is an antisemitic terrorist organization with genocidal aspirations and actively supporting them is morally indefensible. Yes, this includes the Al-Qassam Brigades.

Anti-colonial and other revolutionary movements do in fact have fundamental moral obligations and suffering oppression does not give you carte blanche to do terrorism, even when an oppressor attempts to render peaceful opposition impossible. There is a middle ground between peaceful marching and 850+ dead civilians; aim for that.

The left is just as prone to unhinged conspiracism as the right.

Verify your sources, for fuck's sake.

Use nuance. It won't kill you.

There's more, but it's a little difficult to summarize an unfinished post. If you want to argue with any of these points, go ahead, just keep in mind that a longer, more comprehensive post is in the works that might have the answer to your argument/complaint/insult/intellectual disagreement. If that post isn't up by midnight GMT on Friday, assume I forgot about it and argue away. In conclusion, antisemitism is bad, apartheid is also bad, Tumblr is a hellsite (derogatory), "From the river to the sea" is, in fact, antisemitic, seriously, stop saying it, take Jews seriously when they warn you about antisemitism instead of writing them off like a damn naive fool, and last but not least, free Palestine.