#not his family obviously!!! but everyone else.

[thewritetofreespeech]

Invincible x Reader

cw: f!superhero reader, pregnant reader, repeat: very pregnant reader, heterosexual sex, pregnant sex, fingering, slight body dysmorphia language, general fluff & cuteness

wc: 2K

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“And in other news, catastrophe came to downtown when an apartment building caught fire earlier this afternoon. Luckily, Invincible was on site to help subdue the blaze along with local fire & rescue teams. Thanks to the efforts of our local heroes and superhero, no one was seriously injured. Now over to Susan Storm for the weather…”

You sigh as you turn off the TV and stare into the blank screen. You wish you were out there. Saving the city with everyone else instead of cooped up here. “Don’t forget, I’m pretty cool too.” You mutter at your round, very pregnant stomach.

It wasn’t like your pregnancy was ‘unplanned’. You and Mark had been talked about having a family just….not right now. With everything going on, and the two of you only just getting married, you thought this was a kick-the-can-down-the-road conversation for another day. Apparently, the universe had other plans, and all of a sudden you were pregnant with your first child.

Again, not a huge issue. Though not totally planned it was a happy surprise. Mark was ecstatic. Picking you up and spinning you around in the air when he heard the news. The only ‘problem’ was being pregnant didn’t really go together with superhero work. Once everyone found out, you were put on restrictive duty. Then when you started showing you were basically shunted away like one of those women in a period drama you had been reading these past few weeks with nothing to do. It was humiliating, and annoying.

“I’m home!”

You crane your head back as far as it would go over the couch to see Mark fly in. In his casual clothes, all smiles, and a to-go bag in hand. “I got you your favorite!”

“Awww! Thanks!” It warmed your heart to know he was thinking about you. Even with everything he had going on. “Like I need more snacks though. I’m already big as a house.”

“Nah. Don’t say that. You’re beautiful.” Mark insisted. Leaning in to give you a kiss before he sat on the couch beside you. Draping your legs across his lap. “How was your day?”

“Fine. This.” You told him as you gestured towards the couch. This heavily pregnant with the baby due soon, you basically picked a spot to sink into and that was that for the day. “Rudy gave me some schematics that he said he needed some help, but I think he’s just placating me.”

Mark chuckled. “I don’t think Rudy has that in him. He probably just wants you to feel like your still part of the team.”

“Oh yeah. Look out it’s ‘Beached Whale Girl’.” You sigh and flop your head back against the couch. “Being pregnant sucks.”

“Come on. It’s not that bad.”

You lift your head up to glare at Mark. “Heard about your daring rescue today downtown.”

“Oh? That? Yeah, I was just in the neighborhood. Not a big deal.”

“At least you get to do something. I’m just stuck here all day, bored out of my mind and doing Rudy’s paperwork.”

“I can think of something we can do.” Mark’s hand rubbed against your calf. “If you’re still bored.”

You arch a brow at Mark. Taking in his bashful smile and suggestive look. “Seriously?”

“You said you were super horny recently.” You wouldn’t put it that way but, yes, you had been. Obviously being a woman you had no idea what it was like to be a teenage boy going through puberty, but you had to assume that it was something like this. Constantly thinking about sex or rubbing up against things to get some friction off. Shit…what if you had a boy. Was this going to be your life in 12-15 years? “If you don’t want to that’s fine. We can watch a movie too.”

“I didn’t say that.” You told Mark. “It’s just…do you want to?”

“I mean yeah. Who doesn’t want to have sex with a hottie?” Oh shit…seems that ‘teenage brain’ last a bit longer that 12-15 years. God help you.

“You’re not like grossed out?” Though it was probably all in your head, it felt like you were ever expanding at this point. You felt five times bigger than you did last week when the two of you had sex, so maybe the appeal wasn’t there anymore. Plus you hadn’t showered yet today.

Mark just scoffed with a smile as he leaned over the couch to kiss you. “Don’t say that. You’re beautiful.”

His lips connect with yours and you instantly let Mark in. He smelled like soap. So, he must have showered before he came home, and yet there was still a lingering scent of smoke in his hair from the fire earlier. Musky and dangerous.

You moan softly into the kiss and adjust as much as you could to lay comfortably on the couch and let Mark lay on top of you between your legs. His hands bracing on either side of you on the soft material to not crush you or the baby.

“Do you want to move to the bedroom?” You ask Mark when the two of you finally broke apart from kissing. “Not sure how much more this old couch could take.”

The couch was fine. You were just being self-conscious on your current size. Maybe Mark sensed this, or perhaps it was just his usual chivalrous nature, but he just grinned, got off the couch, and then lifted you in his arms with ease. “You don’t have to ask me twice.”

He gave you another peck and then flew off to the bedroom to lay you down on the bed. Looking up at Mark you could see an almost overwhelming look of love and devotion on his face. It made your insides tingle.

“It’s not fair you get to wear the same clothes through all this.” You ‘scold’ as Mark divested himself of his pull over and pants while you were struggling to take off your top that was once your comfy shirt turned fitted tee.

Mark just laughed. “Tell you what. Next time, I’ll put on 20 pounds too so we’ll both look the same.”

You arch your brow at the comment of ‘next time’ but do not have a chance to ask as Mark slid up across the bed to kiss you again. You moan loudly this time into the kiss. No longer distracted with falling off the couch and feeling completely safe in Mark’s arms.

His hands run over your body. Lightly callused from fighting and work. The sensation making you shutter. One hand slid up to your breast and palmed it in his hand. The touch caused you to moan obscenely loud. Your breasts had been incredibly sensitive the past few days, and sore with the new weight on them. Having them touched, getting the weight off your chest even just a little, felt amazing.

“That feel good baby?” Mark asked. Voice hot & heavy as he kissed the corners of your mouth and jaw.

You let out a helpless little, “yeaahh…” and arch your back to press your chest into his hand further for more attention.

Mark slid down, kissing your neck along the way, to press his lips along the sides of your swollen breasts. Soft and gentle. Like butterfly kisses almost. While he worked on your breasts you felt another hand touch your thigh and slide up. Your legs immediately part for him. Almost whimpering for his touch as you waited for his fingers to make contact. “Mark please….”

Your hero of course doesn’t leave you hanging. His fingers make quick work of the boy shorts you had been wearing around the house. Where they went and what happened to them you didn’t really care. All you cared about was Mark touching you and when you finally felt his fingers against your apex your back nearly bowed. “Oh my God…!”

At your persistent cry, Mark’s fingers became more insistent. Usually, he would work up to two fingers inside you, but with how needy you were being and how wet & open your pussy was, he must have felt confident to just go ahead. Burying them inside you while his thumb rubbed your clit. “Fuck babe. You’re so wet…feel like you’re gonna swallow my hand.”

“Mmmm….Mark…!” You just moan. Indeed feeling your walls tighten around his fingers with urgency. “Put your dick in me!”

“That’s no way for a mother to talk.” He teased as he pulled his fingers out of you.

You whimper in your mind at the loss but still have the sense to glare playfully at him and tell him, “Mother fucker.”

Mark laughed and God how you loved that sound. You hoped your kid got his laugh. He scooted back on his knees and used what juices he had collected on his hand to lube up his cock. “Can you roll over for me?”

The request left you a little confused, but you do as he said. “There. Right there. That’s perfect.” He said as you moved to lay on your side and Mark came up behind you to spoon before sticking a pillow under your stomach. “I read that this will be a little easier on your back this time and help with the pressure.”

“You read?” You repeated, looking over your shoulder at Mark, who blushed and kind of sheepishly shrugged. God how you loved this man. If you could get pregnant twice right now you would. “Well, let’s put your research to work.”

Mark gave a little groan and leaned over to kiss you while you craned your neck back. He moved your leg up and slid his dick between your thighs. You moan into Mark’s mouth as you felt the head of his cock bump against your entrance and then slide past. The hard lines of him frottaging against your pussy and getting slick. “Mmmm…Mark…Please….”

He pulled back again and properly slipped his cock inside you. It goes in easy but you still gasp as you finally got what you wanted. “Oh fuck..!” Mark held your leg back as he thrust into you. Slow and shallow. You grip the sheets with your hands tight. Moaning and panting while Mark fucked you from behind. “It feels so good….”

“You feel so good…” Mark groaned back. Panting against your ear. The hard lines of his chest pressed against your back.

His teeth nip at your ear and you shutter. “D-Don’t…!”

“Why? Are you gonna cum baby?” He did it again as he teased you, his hand sliding down from your thigh holding your leg to your juice center. Fingers finding your clit and rubbing it, making quick work of you to orgasm.

“M-Mark!” You sputter as you convulse around him. White noise filling your ears as stars dance behind your eyes.

You come back just in time to hear Mark cum too, a tale-tell low grunt, and his hips slowed with his cock buried inside you. The two of you laid there for a moment, sweaty and spent, before Mark kissed your shoulder and pulled back. “How was that?”

“You have to ask?” You tease him. Then roll over to your other side, with some effort, to cuddle your husband. “Amazing. And, yes, the pillow really helped.” Mark grinned and kissed your nose with pride.

Below, you felt the baby kick in your stomach. Seeming to realize that its disturbance was now over, and they had some things to say about it. “Yeah, yeah…” You coo at them as you rub your belly. “I need a shower. Or a bath.” That would probably calm them down. “Do you think my takeout is still good?”

“I can heat it up for you while you take your bath.��� Mark offered.

You grin and lean up to kiss him. “You are just too good to me.”

He shrugged. “What can I say? You make it easy.”

Mark then got up to start the tub for you before reheating your food. You sat there, contented. Some day soon you would return to taking care of the world’s problems and fighting crime. But, for now, it was nice to be the one taken care of.

[ranting-writer]

To say Dirk didn't want to be there was a massive understatement.

He'd been minding his own business in his corner of the meteor, tinkering with some random piece of machinery he'd found. Then suddenly, they were passing through dream bubbles again, and his room had become his old apartment's living room.

Well, a version of it.

Smuppets and puppets littered the floor, empty apple juice bottles and soda cans were piled in a box, and the air smelled of stale cigarette smoke and week old Monsters. The sounds of a skateboarding game came from the TV in the living room corner, and cresting over the back of the futon was a familiar shade of strawberry blonde poking up under a black hat.

It wasn't until he'd stepped around the futon that he realized who this was.

Him.

Dave's him, anyway.

Dirk "Bro" Strider, the man, the myth, the douchebag himself.

Bro didn't seem to realize Dirk's presence at the end of the couch. If he did, he didn't show it, engrossed in his Xbox.

Bro at once seemed both nothing like Dave's descriptions, but yet every bit like them. When asked about Bro, Dave had given a clearly rehearsed spiel about how cool the guy was. "Aw shit yeah, dude," he'd said. "Bro's, like, the epitome of cool. The god damned Emperor of Irony, and King Shit of Puppet Island. Best ventriloquist rapper in the game."

And, yeah, sure, this guy definitely had an air of "cool" around him. Typical cool guy markers. Shades, a cool hat (everyone knows a good hat adds hella levels to the Cool-Guyometer), a nonchalant demeanor...

Yeah.

He was cool.

Yet, something inside Dirk's stomach gnawed on itself, twisting in knots to get at its own tail. This man before him was a manifestation of all the wrong he could do. Bro was the epitome of who Dirk was or could reasonably be. Manipulative. Cold. Shut off and shut down. Abusive.

" 'Ey. You good there, lil dude?"

The light southern drawl pulled Dirk out of his anxious spiral and he jumped a bit, looking at Bro. Bro hadn't moved an inch.

"Huh?"

"I said, you good?"

Dirk blinked dumbly as he tried to process the question. That was definitely his voice, but lower and raspy, like Bro was a-? Oh, yeah, there it is. Bro was definitely a smoker if the absent tapping of a pack of cigarettes on his thigh during a cutscene was an indicator.

"Yeah," Dirk finally replied. "I'm fine."

Bro nodded absently. He still hadn't looked over. What was this guy's deal?

Before, Dirk hadn't quite understood why his lack of movement, or lack facial expression had unnerved Dave so much, but he was beginning to understand.

Bro spoke again, gesturing to the empty spot next to him. "Then pop a squat, Dirk."

Dirk reluctantly sat, not having much else to do besides tinker again. Maybe this could be an opportunity to learn something about himself, or maybe Dave.

"Aren't you 'Dirk' too?", he asked, curling up as far from Bro as possible. The man was uncomfortable to be close to, if he was being honest with himself.

Bro shrugged a bit. "Depends," he answered. "Who's asking and why?"

Dirk frowned slightly. What the hell did that mean? Two seconds in, he was already confused and annoyed.

"Well, I'm asking, obviously."

"Then it's D', or Bro. Either works fine for me."

Dirk hummed, looking at the TV screen.

What the hell was he supposed to ask? What was your life like? Did you have a good family? Do you use labels for your sexuality, or do you care? Do you like robots?

Unfortunately, what fell out of his face was, "Why is Dave scared of us?"

Bro paused his game and stared ahead.

Dirk flinched a bit.

Oh he fucked up. Perhaps he was going to get first hand evidence as to why Dave winced when he moved, why Dave never looked directly at him...

But nothing happened, not for a long moment.

After a bit, Bro started playing again, speaking lowly. "It ain't you, it's me," he said, voice tight, like he was upset. "I scare him, not you."

Dirk huffed a bit. "Yeah, but why?"

Bro shook his head, pausing his game again. "Are you wanting a verbal answer, or a demonstration?"

Dirk stared a bit as Bro finally looked over. What was this freak on about? What kind of demonstration? Dirk's lips tightened into a line, thinking about what the hell that could possibly mean.

He hoped it wasn't something utterly unforgivable...

Bro, seemingly impatient with Dirk, huffed and stood. "You pop by for a chat," he drawled. "And you can't even hold the damn conversation to save your life." He opened the window and took a cigarette from the pack.

Absently, Dirk realized there was no ashtray about as he answered. "Would you even be able to tell me?", he asked.

Bro shrugged as he lit the cigarette. "I can give you my best guess," he replied. "You could leave it to Dave to fill in the gaps or whatever the hell he'd do."

There was something almost affectionate in Bro's voice when he said Dave's name. Was he proud of Dave? Possibly. Dirk was certainly proud of Dave.

A long silence passed between the two Striders in the dream room, long enough that Dirk thought the bubble might pass before their conversation finished. Luckily, Bro finally spoke up again.

"Would you believe me if I said I genuinely believed I was doing right by him?"

Dirk looked over at Bro's back. Would he believe that? Probably. Dirk himself acted oddly, even badly, towards others in the attempt to help them improve or grow. Brobot, for example, was literally designed to help Jake learn to protect himself and get combat experience in a controlled manner. Ignoring the fact that the robot was also a bizarre attempt at flirting of course...

Bro continued without an answer. "I knew about the game a little, we all did. Rox, Harley, Mrs. Egbert and her son... We all knew. We had to prepare the kids for what was to come."

Dirk hummed as Bro took a drag of his cigarette. "So, what," he began. "You tortured and abused him to, what? Teach him something?"

Bro shrugged noncommittally. "Eh, more or less I guess."

"You kicked him down the fucking stairs."

Dirk really needed to recognize when to shut the hell up. First the question itself, now the angry blurting out? Jeeze, he really needed to take a chill pill. He could defend himself if it came to a fight, sure, but he wasn't sure he wanted to see what this version of him was capable of with twice the lifetime of training.

Bro turned to look at Dirk, something angry in his demeanor. "You try it," he snipped. "You try being 20 fucking years old and suddenly having to be a father without support. Most I had was fucking Dennis, and that guy was borderline useless."

Dirk stared blankly. "...Just because you were 20, without help, doesn't mean you should have treated Dave that way," he retorted. "Dave trusted you for love, support, and affection. You gave him a bruise in the shape of your foot on his sternum at least once."

Suddenly, Bro seemed to vanish. Dirk stood sharply, swearing. He was familiar with his own flash step, but he wasn't accustomed to someone else doing it.

As suddenly as Bro vanished, he reappeared in front of Dirk, making the younger Strider fall back onto the futon. He put his foot up, lightly pressing it into Dirk's chest. "Yeah, yeah I did," he drawled, almost sounding bored were it not for the tenseness in his shoulders. "I left a lot of bruises on him, left a lot of scrapes from the roof."

Dirk squirmed a bit as the pressure on his chest increased as Bro leaned down.

"I was trying to teach him skills he needed to survive that damn game, to persevere and do shit like help your sorry ass."

From the new angle, Dirk could see through Bro's shades. A familiar orange color, perhaps a bit more gold than his own. But more than their color, Bro's eyes were slightly widened. Not enough to really raise his eyebrows over his shades, but it made him look unhinged. Like something in his head had snapped a bit and he was one more comment away from losing his cool.

Was this how others viewed Dirk? As one little thing away from losing it and pinning people to futons under his foot?

Was this an angle Dave had seen Bro from? And, shit, if it was, Dave wasn't the height then that he is now. Dirk frowned as he pictured a much smaller Dave, maybe shaking and scared, with Bro's heavy sneaker pressed into his tiny abdomen. Dirk wouldn't be surprised if crying in fear was one of the things Bro scared Dave from doing earliest.

Bro muttered, "Dave needed to be independent and able, and willing, to draw blood to save his own ass. He needed to be smart, adaptable, and able to feed himself. I couldn't, in good conscience, let him grow up and be scared of weapons or pain. He couldn't be afraid of surprises or the obscene. He needed to have the skills to fucking survive."

So, here were Bro's reasons.

Honestly....

Probably not unlike the reasons Dirk himself would have given had he been in that situation.

And that tore Dirk up inside.

Was he truly so capable of disregarding the actual feelings and affection of a child in favor of hurting them for a long term goal? Was he really so callous and cruel?

Was he really capable of putting a shoe print bruise into the chest of someone he loved?

And that actually brought up a new question...

"Did you even love Dave?"

Bro's eyes sort of slumped into grief before vanishing behind the shades again as Bro pulled away. Bro sighed, "Obviously."

"He doesn't seem to know that."

"He does know that. He's a smart kid, he-".

"Did you ever tell him? Like, outright, 'hey, man, I love you'? Or was it more like, you bought him apple juice and his collectables and thought he could infer from there?"

Bro sat back down, grumbling. "I don't know, okay?"

Dirk let out a little puff of relief as Bro plopped down. He did not like being on the receiving end of a threatening bespatted shoe. Bespatted? Was that a word? Either way, Bro wore spats and that was ominous on its own.

The two sat in silence for a time, ignoring each other, but eventually, Bro mumbled. "Dave was all I had..."

Dirk looked over, curious and confused. Didn't Bro say he had... Who was it? Dennis? Who the hell was that, anyway?

Bro sighed, taking off his hat and shades. He rubbed his face with his hands then left his hands over his eyes, unwilling to look at Dirk. "Sure, my buddy Dennis was around..." Ah, Dennis again. Cool. Cool. New info maybe.

"But he was really only about to help with Game Bro," Bro continued. "And he hated it when Dave cried. Once told me I should lock him in the bedroom to get him to stop."

Bro dropped his hands to let them rest in his lap, letting Dirk see his face for what it was. Sunken cheeks, heavy eyes bags resting under feral orange eyes, freckles dusting his nose, and a few pockmarks on his cheeks. His crooked, broken Roman nose sat almost... Blandly on his face, instead of standing out beautifully. Dirk absently touched his nose, wondering if his was as improperly healed as Bro's from Sawtooth breaking it at least once...

"I know I wasn't 'Dad of the Year', or whatever," Bro muttered as he stared off. "But I would have given anything for that kid. I wasn't warm or cuddly with him for the most part, but... Fuck, I would have sooner burned the world and myself than watch him be harmed in any real way."

And somehow... Dirk believed him.

He understood how it felt to truly care for someone, to want them safe, and to be willing to destroy himself and everything for one person. At one point, maybe that was Jake, but now? Maybe it was Dave, just like it was for Bro. Dirk sighed a bit. "You should consider telling him these things, man," he said. "He doesn't exactly realize how much you gave a shit."

Bro didn't respond, not to that part anyway. He slipped his shades back on and turned back to his game. "Dirk," he started. "Make the best of our second chance. I fucked up our first one. Be a better man than I am."

Dirk stared a bit, swallowing as the meteor began to full pass through the bubble. "I... I'll try."

Bro nodded and then, Dirk was left alone, his room his once again.

[beliscary]

there's a tower in belisaere called dolorous bastion

[moxogeni]

>so why should I believe you would tolerate the dissent of others if they came into contradiction with your own goals? I won't. I shouldn't have to let the collective restrict my behavior.

>All social systems necessarily restrict freedom. Correct.

>Modern science and industry has increased freedom and autonomy. The large social systems that are required to prop up modern science and industry are so complex as to necessarily restrict the freedom of individuals in the most important ways, one's labor. If we were to create a socialist system, the workers would have to work according to the votes of the worker's collective, and not by their own autonomy. They would be beholden to governmental regulation and policy. In order to have large cities, many actions must be restricted in order to make them livable. Socities necessarily must be held together via the restriction of freedom, and especially in Industrial ones. As to your argument that increased free-time = more autonomy, I would say that autonomy in the labor that consumes so much of primitive time is more autonomous than Industrial labor, for the reasons listed above.

>By "social goals" I mean goals pursued and achieved collectively rather than individually. If you work together with other people to achieve a shared goal, how is that less fulfilling than working alone to achieve the same goal? Because it's something that you can be proud of. It's something entirely of your creation, something that you poured your individual effort into. Nobody else has claim to it. If you simply helped a soulless production line create more product, that's obviously not going to create the same sense of accomplishment as if you did it yourself.

>You can't just say "let everyone do whatever they want" because that leads to intractable contradictions It doesn't lead to contradictions, since all that restricts one's freedom will be that individual's might.

>You're the one who said "pre-industrial" in the first place. You're the one talking about the virtues of "primitive labor". If you don't want to abandon industry, then what do you want? You said that I said advancing past capitalism requires abandonment of industrialism. I did not say this, and so I corrected you. I want to return to pre-industrial forms of production. You keep putting words in my mouth.

>My argument was that pre-industrial material conditions have never produced an egoist society. I was under the impression that you were advocating for a return to a pre-industrial mode of production, however you seem to be arguing now that that is not the case. So I will ask again: what are you advocating for, exactly? You're just assuming that I believe in dialectical materialism. Ofc I think that material conditions aren't the sole factor in determining social structure. If I did, I wouldn't be arguing for the things I'm arguing for. This level of reasoning is very basic and I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion. I've been arguing for the same thing, you just keep assuming I believe things I don't belive. I am advocating for a return to pre-industrial forms of technology.

In the Soviet Union, the leader was only replaced after he died. Every time. If it was true it was a democracy, it's a real coincidence that every time the leader was so great that the people just kept electing him every time. In reality, the systems of the Soviet Union allowed an entrenched oligarchy to control the country undemocratically. There were Gulags, secret police, crackdowns on political dissidence, and severe bans on emigration. Not things you generally see in democratic countries.

The DPRK is ruled by one family and has been since its conception. The government does not permit people to leave at all. That's why the only people that come out are defectors. Every piece of media that comes from the DPRK praises Kim Jong Un and his clan as God-like figures. This is what THEY say.

>If centralized and decentralized revolutions were equally unsuccessful, you might have a point here. My point is the exact opposite. If centralized revolutions succeeded more often than decentralized revolutions, I would still prefer decentralized revolutions because they don't create dictatorships. You can also have an organized, decentralized revolution. You just don't have to centralize it with a vanguard controlling the whole thing.

>I called egoism misanthropic because it is based on the notion that dependence on other people limits and degrades the individual. I want to do X. I'm dependent on Person A for Y. Person A will withhold Y for if I do X. I can't do X. Dependence allows for coercion. That's not a difficult or misanthropic idea.

>How would your individual cottage artisans produce insulin? I'm obviously aware that we'd have to give up modern medicine for this, I just think it's worth it. I'm not an idiot; I know that you can't make insulin by yourself.

>Is every individual expected to be their own doctor, surgeon, and pharmacist, since specialization is restrictive and an expectation to provide for others is coercive? The level of technology available in this theoretical world would not require the level of specialization needed for medicinal functions in today's society. I also don't think that specialization is inherently bad. Some level of it could be non-coercieve, but the hyper-specialization of all individuals in today's society creates such levels of hyper-interdependence that is incomparable to such specialization in said ideal pre-industrial world.

alright.

I'll start with Lenin first, then move to Marx. Lenin was an autocrat and a dictator. There's no way around it. He was unelected and created a one-party state. This was due to the fact that the revolution was led by a vanguard, which the members of, once they succeeded in overthrowing the old government, could easily set up a self-serving dictatorship. He's not a Marxist, and he's not a Socialist.

Since Lenin obviously did not in any way uphold the vision of Marx, I'll tackle him separately. A (stateless) communist society does eliminate many hierarchies, but leaves the most coercive systems untouched. Those being: the hierarchy of the collective over the individual and that coercion required of industrialism. In a commune, one's individual vote is negligible, since the outcome is only affected by one person's vote in very rare circumstances. Once the votes are tallied, the individual is expected to conform to the decisions of the majority, and to accept the commune's laws and customs. This leads to the individual becoming feeling helpless and weak.

Secondly, Marxism fails to address the coercion required to make an industrial society function. In order to have products, you must have a payroll of workers to stand where they are told to stand and do what they are told to do and go home and show up to work when they are told to do it. Instead of working towards goals that are immediate, which directly affect one's condition (such as building a house to live in), one must do a task or set of tasks that ultimately has little to do directly with one's own material well-being. Instead, the hyperspecialized work required in an industrial society is made livable indirectly via trade. This leads to a dependence on the industrial system as a whole, which requires a massive amount of cohesion to function.

Humans are no longer permitted to act autonomously since doing so would be a hindrance to the system. Behaviors which are not conducive to the system are disallowed, but all unimportant facets of our life which do not interfere with the functioning of the system are permitted to grow within said limits.

Lenin was elected as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Congress of Soviets a total of nine times before his death. His position was not one elected by the people directly, but rather he was elected by the congressional representatives of the soviets who were themselves elected by the people. You can argue that his position should have been directly elected if you want, but you cannot say he was unelected. Regardless, while the Chairman of the CPC was the head of government of the RSFSR, and later the Soviet Union, the CPC was not a one-person council and the council as a whole was subordinate to the Central Executive Committee, which was in turn subordinate to the Congress of Soviets. Lenin was not an autocrat or a dictator; he did not hold sole legal authority and the Soviet government had numerous checks and balances.

I see no reason to believe a vanguard party or a one-party state is undemocratic. The USSR was a dictatorship, but not a dictatorship of one person. It was a dictatorship of the proletariat, as the bourgeoisie were stripped of the right to vote and to be elected. You can object to this if you like, but I personally don't think that was a bad decision.

You seem to be arguing that Lenin was neither Marxist nor socialist because the nascent Soviet Union was not yet classless or stateless. Yet why should it have been expected to be? Communism is not something that can be achieved overnight, or even in one generation. In the meantime, there must be some mechanism for suppressing and overthrowing the bourgeoisie. No matter how democratic, how horizontal, and how people-oriented that mechanism is, it still constitutes a state insofar as it constitutes an organ for the oppression of one class by another. Unless you are arguing that the rights of the bourgeoisie should be maintained and protected, you cannot escape this fact.

At the point of achieving a stateless, classless communist society, I don't see why decision-making would necessarily be performed through simple majority vote. While it's rather pointless in my mind to be speculating about how a hypothetical communist society of the future might function, I think it's safe to say they'd be far more capable of exploring alternative forms of decision-making than we are now. In any case, the question of how a future communist society might function is entirely separate from questions of past and present systems of government.

You are right to point out that the industrial mode of production requires collective and specialized activity in order to function, but I fail to see what the alternative is. Humans are a social animal, our production has always been collective and we have always benefited from specialization in labor. The advancement in industry has made possible a reduction in socially necessary labor time, not an increase. It is capitalism and the profit motive that has mandated long hours and low autonomy in the workplace, not industry itself.

People are not inherently stupid or self-centered. They can understand very well the relationship between one sector of industry and another. You do not need to be building a house to understand how, for instance, the nails you are manufacturing will be used to build houses and other goods. You do not need to be manufacturing nails to understand how the iron you are mining will be used to make nails and other goods. The idea that it is alienating to be engaged in a task that is socially beneficial rather than merely individually beneficial is absurd.

You talk about social cohesion as if it is impossible or undesirable. But again, what is the alternative? An incoherent, fragmented society? No society at all, and people just fend for themselves as individuals? I fail to see how anything less than social cohesion is desirable.

You say that industrial society is coercive and prevents people from acting autonomously. I say, what does it mean to act autonomously? Humans must satisfy our basic needs before we can think about engaging in autonomous activity. If you are starving, you are compelled to seek food. If you are freezing, you are compelled to seek shelter. Individual freedom is subordinate to our material conditions, and only through improving our material conditions can we satisfy our basic needs and guarantee individual freedom.

If we are to have a society where the individual freedoms of everyone are maximized, then we must have a society which guarantees everyone their basic needs. Food, shelter, clothing, medicine, education, transportation, communication, etc. All of these must be secured before a person has full freedom to act autonomously. Improving the quality of these things and the efficiency of their production improves the standard of living and reduces socially necessary labor time, which allows for greater degrees of freedom.

You say behaviors which are not conducive to the system are disallowed. I do not necessarily disagree, but I feel you are intentionally obscuring the nature of such behaviors. What is “the system” here? The system is society. So a behavior not conducive to society is an anti-social behavior, a behavior that impedes or harms other members of society. Why should these behaviors be allowed? Is it maximizing autonomy and freedom to allow someone to steal or rape or murder with impunity? No, it is merely trading someone else's freedom and autonomy for your own.

You can certainly maximize your own freedom and autonomy at the expense of others, but if we are to live in a society where the freedom and autonomy of everyone is to be maximized, then there must be certain limits to individual behavior for the sake of others. Maybe someday humanity will evolve to a state where one can live in their own private world with maximum freedom to do as they please without worrying about impacting others, but until that day we will have to live in a society with other people and the social restrictions that come with that. Personally, I don't think it's such a burden to have to care about other people.

Society as it stands today is indeed imperfect and often oppressive. Socialist states in the past and present have yet to achieve the classlessness and statelessness that marks higher-stage socialism, i.e. communism. They too are imperfect and have restricted people's behavior in various ways, some I would argue are necessary, and some I would argue are unnecessary. However, I believe that socialism offers us the greatest opportunity to improve society as a whole and liberate humanity from oppressive structures. I believe that capitalism remains the central impediment to the advancement of society and the pursuit of human freedom. I believe that a vanguard party and a dictatorship of the proletariat have been the most effective means of combating the bourgeoisie so far. And I believe that the advancement of science and industry has been the most effective means of securing and improving the basic needs of the people as a whole.

My question to you remains: what is the alternative? You can criticize all you want, and thoughtful and rational critique of all things is both important and beneficial, but unless you have an alternative to socialist revolution and industrial society, then you're just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. How are we to combat the bourgeoisie without a vanguard or a state? How are we to provide people with their basic needs without industrial production?

[cuepickle]

Stranger Things x Breakfast Club AU (part ?)

[statementlou]

Tbh i am not surprised that a person who openly talked about having drinking problems since 1d days, because of how crazy 1d worked has been agressive. What surprises me is people being surprised (they never seriously saw drunk person?). But i am also confused about this whole book. Apparently Maya said that that book is not fully bout Liam but compilation about her exes and some of the worst parts are not about him. But recently she said that the book is “ofc about him” so what is true then? Or did she meant it that ofc some parts are about him or that whole book is about him?

Sorry, just confused

I also am not surprised- we've learned so much more about the real stories of things and about the guys' actual lives over the last years, and the story that has unfolded around Liam has been totally consistent throughout if you've been following it, and so the information Maya is telling us is shocking and upsetting but not difficult to believe. I got an anon yesterday saying they were worried about getting similar revelations about the other boys, like "if Liam could be doing this we just don't know, any of them could", and while in a way that's always true I guess, anyone could be doing anything in private like... that doesn't really concern me. Because none of these Liam revelations are coming out of nowhere, there have been many MANY steps along the way leading us here if you've been watching, and he has talked openly about both his mental health struggles and his addiction issues. So to answer that anon... to find out something similar about Louis would in contrast contradict everything we know about him and no I'm not worried about it. Is he an abuser or a loose cannon, well that news would truly shock me to my core, I will be honest. But anyway as for the book I don't find it strange that she was nervous when it came out and treading lightly and later decided, fuck it. In the absolutely on point tiktok she dropped today (YES👏GIRL👏FUCKING TELL THEM👏) she even mentions attempts to keep her from publishing the book, presumably by Liam's team, that I am riveted by and cannot WAIT to hear more details about actually- like I said I don't find it at all strange that she was nervous and downplayed it a bit then. But if she says now that it's just about Liam, well, I would say it's been clear from the beginning that the book is their story. Maya herself brought up the parallel of songs being written about stuff and I think it's the same thing; it's true (she was in an abusive relationship that involved certain kinds of events) but maybe not 100% literal (I'm sure details were changed to make the story work, it's not like a word for word timeline of their interactions or whatever).

[forestgreenlesbian]

.

[bracedfangirl]

Yep... I think it's pretty intentional.

I mean yeah they don't really show Lloyd's mistakes outright, but I think the... Vibes of him in DR generally do explain why he doesn't work as a teacher pretty well.

The way he always tries to mimic Wu (and even declares to want to do everything his way), resulting in a... kinda paralel situation between Arin and Morro.

Lloyd acting kinda disorganized, putting off personally important issues of the team for the world saving mission... To me it seemed like not at all subtle hinting that Lloyd's issues with teaching stem from 3 things:

-Lack of experience (DRS1... Very obvious)

-Generational trauma (Lloyd's first "there's something I haven't told you" moment, the Morro-Arin paralels)

And the most important of all I think:

-Being the chosen one

This isn't even really hinted at, but it's one of the few logical explanations for the... Everything else, all that weird messing up.

The way Lloyd became a ninja is pretty much as unhealthy as it gets. Rushed, not personalized enough training, from multiple people with various levels of experience, starting from roughly age 10?. He learned spinjitzu in like... 2 weeks, and there's no way that the very life threatening situation (in a barrel, as such blind, fighting an adult who wants to kill him), as well as his heritage didn't have a hand in it.

He's fumbling because he witnessed very little of the early training of his teammates, and he can't use the experiences of his own when teaching because he doesn't want to put Arin and Sora in that kind of danger. He's basing the training they get on gut feeling and retellings and fuzzy childhood memories.

Which is, when paired with Lloyd's frankly insane sense of duty, lack of life outside the gi (which make him willing to sacrifice a lot for "the mission"), and the zero teaching experience, are a recipe for disaster when they meet a kid like Arin, who has high expectations of his idol, and obviously has a lost family he understandably puts before world saving...

And how his way of doing things kinda works out for Sora proves this. Sora has no civilian life to return to, and has always wanted to make the world a better place. She has that same sense of duty. Everyone she loves and would put before "the mission" is also in said mission... (She and Lloyd also both have a very similar, heavy self doubt).

(I actually really hope that bringing Morro back serves to highlight this. To remind Lloyd of the worst case scenario that can transpire from failing a student like that, and to show Arin that just cause Lloyd's shit at teaching doesn't mean he's a bad guy, he's just a well meaning idiot with a fucked up life)

Maybe Lloyd just shouldn't be a master.

He's clearly not very good at it. He's been trying it since season 5, and his first real students both take FOREVER to make any progress. Sora takes a whole season to unlock her powers, but apparently isn't taught spinjitzu in any of that time- the literal first thing we see taught to any of our characters in the original show. Arin somehow makes backwards progress with Lloyd, and then after doing like three poses with his friend seems to get it instantly.

Like... seems like he's just not very good at teaching. Maybe he should hand the position over to Kai, he's got a natural knack for it, a lot more experience, and a much higher success rate as far as I'm concerned. Master Kai for the win.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

One day

One day I hope people realize that Kitsunami already "broke through his programming" back by issue #56 of Idw Sonic

He had an entire mini arc where he dealt with being without Surge for the first time, and in the real world. He met Sonic and his friends directly, tried to work out what his purpose would be without Surge in his life (gave it a shot trying to devote himself to Sonic, seeing him as the next best thing after Surge). And when it was all said and done, he decided after experiencing more that at Surge's side is where he wanted to be.

As of the recent IDW issues, Kit isn't sticking with Surge "because of programming" and "because he just needs for other characters to friend him and turn him into a better person". He is at her side because he wants to be. He protects her and aids her because he cares about her, not just because he's serving the strongest guy in the room. And he's not interacting with others because he's decided not to give a shit about anyone else other than Surge (because from his pov, even the "good guys" are fake. From his pov, everyone is someone trying to lie and manipulate their way into pulling him and Surge to their side)

Kit already has decided what he wants to do with his life. And he decided it on his own. Not because of anyone else's wants or wishes. That's the whole point of his speech at the end of #56.

He's burying whatever his and Surge's past is and moving forward with his conviction to be with Surge because it's what he wants.

[pochapal]

"the endgame had never been finished" meaning......kinzo died before he could put this plan of his into motion?

[nyerusnova]

nevermind i saw the leaks, i was right lmao.

jason is fine and they just coordinated to trick failsafe to get it to frazzle out afaik.

that makes sense considering the entire point of #147 was bruce deciding to work with his family despite his growing paranoia over their safety, etc. given that zdarsky has been trying to explore bruce's mental state, it would have made no sense for him to immediately validate that paranoia, instead.

[berryblu-soda]

Anyways update i just didnt bother to post earlier:

fr God is good and the whole car crash my parents got into last week was so incredibly mild in terms of injuries!!!! worst was a bruised knee im pretty sure

ALSO-

*taps mic* HUG YOUR FREAKING LOVED ONES OR SO HELP ME!!!!!!!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

omgg lol [guy who won't stop going "more like scapeGOATED" voice] now hold! on!! lmao [same guy just saw encanto voice] Hold on!!!

[ablednt]

Granted I have the overall geographical and cultural knowledge of a 4th grader but from what I can tell the nuclear family model really does seem to be a white colonial invention

Different cultures have different approaches but I mainly hear about either large family units where multiple generations support each other and raise their children and grandchildren together or an "it takes a village" approach where children are raised somewhat communally

And I can't really speak on it much or claim that these families were free of abuse or that children aren't often an oppressed group basically everywhere I know of but the way ownership of your children is so engrained into white society is so bizarre

Like once you notice it you can't unnotice it even the most loving well meaning parents don't know what to do about it because everyone is so isolated from their own families and their own communities so you wind up with 1-2 parents who have full legal ownership of their child and are raised in a culture where you don't have personhood until you're 18 and all attempts at self actualization before them are seen as clueless rebellion. Like our culture is so divorced from the concept that a parent is someone who is helping mentor and care for their child so they can thrive as a fellow human being and it's actually so alarming

And ik this problem isn't unique to white and colonized people but it's honestly really soothing to hear about how other cultures approach and view parenting and community as a whole and to internalize it doesn't have to be this way

[swiftfootedachilles]

why cant i stop imagining liam making an accidentally viral video thats like "guess which sibling my brother in law is married to"

[lumiereandcogsworth]

just pictured adam wearing a “villeneuve’s #1 hater” t-shirt and made myself laugh