#or maybe just in the post neoliberalization world idk

[smerzbeliever]

ppl are so annoying acting like their city is unique for having screaming homeless ppl.. like it's literally like that all over the world it's called a housing crisis

[titleknown]

Why is the response to any critique of a kids show "just watch adult shows 4head". Kids deserve good and diverse (story-wise, not just race/gender) media that's actually been thought through. If I say that Steven Universe/Gravity Falls/whatever else has some issues it's not because those are the only shows I've ever watched, it's because I think that maybe we should strive to make good TV that's aimed at all ages.

[In response to this post]

Well, my view of the long and short of it on a macro level is that they're mad at the stagnation of taste under late capitalism, especially if they're into nitche stuff that's starved for funding and social capital while other peoples' stuff has a thriving fandom/scene, and think that being mean on the internet can change it.

Like, while I often chide @afloweroutofstone for engaging in this behavior, an old article of his ironically made the excellent point that the reason so much of our politics centers around meaningless culture war shit that doesn't materially change anything is because we feel so disconnected from the process of influencing our society via political action due to neoliberalism and a gridlocked government with systems designed to basically say No to doing anything good that we feel like all we can do is this ineffectual individualistic pressuring of others via market action.

And, while he was talking about on a larger scale, I think this also applies to the micro scale of what art gets to exist/be produced too.

Like, in the US government arts funding (especially for the sorts of stuff people on here like) is basically dead, the monetary base for indie work online shrunk a lot when the '08 crash basically made the working class broke, and most the most consistent means of funding art isa small monopoly of mercenarial nightmare-megacorps.

People who like things that're nitche and drowned out by the things the megacorps are pushing feel at the mercy of the market and its tastes, with no real workable avenue for changing society in a way that their art is allowed to exist and thrive, or even their ways of enjoying art due to the way social cycles influence fan cultures and how a lot of people have been burned by that (But that's for its own post).

Either way, they feel as if there's no option except that ineffective "change consumer demand to change what megacorps do" mindset, even though it's clear from basic observation that doesn't work for a sour shit.

From my observation, it seems like they feel like their only option is to try and drag culture back to an earlier stage, before the "nerds" "ruined it" by infantilizing it by making their vapid art considered socially acceptable, or so the narrative goes, and want to do this by bullying hard enough they're gone from public life or have modified their behaviors to be "acceptable," IE creating the sort of world they want to live in.

That isn't going to work to change shit, but it sure is going to make a lot of people double down on their bad habits or else feel even more isolated and alone, but as I have observed, people prefer bad solutions to no solutions.

But so far nobody's doing shit at scale to remedy the iactual core problem, IE "We as audience/creators feel as if we have no control over the material factors behind the creation of art in our society," or even stating it as a problem of that, and that sucks!

IDK, I'm rambling at this point, but... in all my observation it really does seem like a mean, sad attempt to exert some tiny amount of control over the means of artistic production via the logics of consumer activism in this hellworld...

[nonsmokingant]

when i played new vegas for the first time i thought mr. house was a piece of shit neoliberal “captain of industry” billionaire type who values profit over human lives and sided with the NCR.

on my most recent play through i cannot help but notice how much more principled than any real world equivalent he is. neither elon musk nor jeffrey bezos nor walt disney himself would have saved a whole city. maybe bill gates would’ve tried, idk. Robert House preserved a piece of USA culture! new vegas FEELS like the real las vegas, 200 years after the apocalypse. Was that really just because of profits? He could’ve survived by himself in a bunker forever with that technology. But he saved a whole city.

And he actually founded his company and has a lot of technical knowledge about robotics. he has absolutely no delusions about his situation and political position, as opposed to that pompous ass of an NCR ambassador, nepobaby General Oliver or genocidal “I’ll take over the whole world!” villain clown Cesar. House has realistic goals, is driven and decisive, and is quite well-spoken to boot. Kinda hot.

and with corrupt idiots who ruin things in charge in the real world now, the NCR’s democracy with the exact same corrupt bullshit happening seems a lot less appealing. mustache man has such a clear idea of what he wants, i can’t help but siding with Mr. House this time around.

It’s kind of a “this depicting of a villain aged so poorly because the goal posts moved and the real world actually got worse than that” type of situation. he should have been a terrible rich person and now pales in comparison to how terrible actual rich people are.

I hate to defend Robert House but I HATE when ppl compare him to Elon Musk. Like at least House made his own company (as his inheritance of his dads company, H&H Tools, was stolen by his brother Anthony) and didn’t just purchase the title of founder

[matt-eldritch]

Mortal Kombat Akademy

In between my work on the 31 Days of Original Characters challenge, I've begun to revisit my plans for the big Mortal Kombat story I'd wanted to do for awhile; Mortal Kombat Akademy. I've done a lot of character busts with backstory info and I did a sort of "season one" plots but this is something I'm not really satisfied with anymore. I'm gonna spend the new year trying to readjust and rework the overall story and characters to something more workable. Here's a few odds and ends of what I've planned so far;

Story Outline

Shaolin Monks, Lui Kang and Kung Lao, are recruited into the Mortal Kombat Akademy, the secret fighting school located on the island paradise of international crimelord, Shang Tsung. But those who step foot on the island are subjected to terrors beyond comprehension once they learn the true purpose of the school; a training ground for the soldiers of an interdimensional tyrant who conquers by use of a fighting tournaments ordained by the gods themselves. But one of the gods, Raiden, is willing to give Earth a fighting chance by training as many chosen Earthlings as he can so they may finally defeat the forces of evil in the Mortal Kombat tournament.

Kinda bare bones but for plot synopsis go, it helps me sort of make a launching pad for the ideas. Like my original idea, the story is still primarily about Lui Kang and Kung Lao going to the school and meeting/befriending the typical heroes of the Mortal Kombat world, Raiden being their mentor and Shang Tsung being the big bad to overcome.

But the story ideas I had just don’t really cut it for me now. I feel as though I was sort of putting the cart before the horse by putting so much time making elaborate details instead of snowballing one idea to make a big bright idea. I’ve made some titles for them;

Start the Semester!

Tour the Akademy!

Prepare for the First Exams!

Bond Like Your Lives Depend On It!

Learn the Fatalities!

Wills and Testaments!

Survive the Detetionrealm!

Survive the First Round of Exams!

Survive the Second Round of Exams!

Survive the Last Round of Exams!

Party Your Asses Off!

Mortal Kombat Akademy V. The DC Universe: Dawn of Pain!

To give some context to them, I had a storyarc planned; Early on, Raiden would want the Earthrealm class (the class would have Kang, Lao, Johnny, Sonya, Jax, Stryker and Nightwolf) to be friends and allies in order to survive the matches and save the world. Easier said than done when so many personalities were clashing together. And once they learn about fatalities, the class goes through some mental anguish over having to kill or be killed, Kang being the only one vowing to never kill anyone, to the disbelief of everyone else. Things start looking up once the class starts to trust and respect one another and become stronger fighters.

But Kano, on the behalf of Goro’s Class (Mileena, Kitana, Jade, Baraka, Sheeva, Skarlet, Reptile, Tanya and Kano himself) frames Sonya and Johnny for a crime, leading to Professor Quan Chi to exile them to the “Detention Realm” where his goons, Drahmin and Moloch, deal out the punishments. My idea for them that they’d be bumbling and dim so Johnny and Sonya could escape them, bonding while trying to make it to the final exams. Everyone but Kang and Lao have been defeated and since Sonya and Johnny were late, it’d all be up to them to beat Goro. Once Goro beast Lao half to death, Kang faces his fears and manages to defeat Goro without killing him, but not without making him suffer for all the pain he’s caused.

The class’ reward for passing the exams is an-all expense paid vacation to Edenia, which is basically a hellhole built to Shao Kahn’s pleasure. Here, Kang and Kitana get some alone time to romantically connect to one another during the celebratory feast hosted by Kitana and Mileena’s parents, Shao Kahn and Sindel. But really, the feast is for the Kahns to asses the threat that Raiden’s students hold to their long term plans. And finally, the DCU story is just a fun breather where I have the mid-1990s versions of their heroes (Superman with a mullet, Batman Forever styled Batman and the two Wonder Women, Artemis and Diana, for example).

And after rereading what I had for plots, I noticed how little the Lin Keui featured into the stories since I designed a lot of them for the series. Should try to fix that somehow.

Overall Art Style

As I stated in previous MKA concept art, I based the art style on the look of Steven Universe. I still intend for the project to be written fanfiction, but I do wish to have some elements of it to be drawn by myself. Not a full adaptation but maybe a full page illustration of each chapter, along with the general character/environment sketches, or like the ending credits of The Mandalorian series.

But back to the art style, I wish to change it. I can’t really go further on the style of Steven Universe if this story is going to be about such heavy violence and gore. It wouldn’t really look right, might cross over into unintentional hilarity or into the uncanny valley. I’m looking at something like the artist One, the man behind One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 whose style is really unique, fast, sketchy and frenetic, all attributes I think will work well. I also love the anime aesthetic of the 1990s so that’s definitely a goal to achieve since I’m setting the story in 1995.

Story Ideas To Keep

* Koins: My idea for an in-canon reason for the koins you win in matches (at least in Mks 9-11, IDK how far back they go) to unlock Krypt stuff will be used as a way for the students to buy things like food, clothing and resurrections due to being killed by another student’s fatalities since its primarily a learning facility instead of a battlefield. Though if you’re broke, you’re not gonna be saved. Koins, like in the games, will be given for performing a fatality and a moral choice comes up when you think “do I do good and be paid less, or do something terrible but get more chances of being resurrected if I die?”

*Profiles: I’ve got to do some rewrites for the characters. Nothing too too major since I do like a lot of what I wrote, but its more to streamline it to fit in the new direction I’m doing. Like, having Sonya, Jax and Stryker being Hall Monitors, I don’t think something like that is gonna be part of my story since I’m trying to take it a tad more seriously. The idea of Detention Realm and having Dharmin and Moloch as lovable henchmen is still canon, as far as I’m concerned. Think the two mice henchmen from the film “Flushed Away”. And on a final note, the newly retconned origin for Sindel...that shit isn’t gonna be part of my story.

Overall, whatever backstories that’ll be changed will likely be on a case by case basis. No telling who or what will be changed right now, but I’ve now thought of some parts to start with.

Diversity and Inclusion

This one is probably gonna be one of the hardest to accomplish since I really want to make the series really diverse with body types, genders and sexuality, race, neurodiversity, that type of subject matter. Inclusion is really important to me, and I’m scared how I might screw it up like how Disney, JK Rowling, SNL, Simpsons, Big Mouth, Voltron so many more screw it all up since they all serve the needs of the capitalist, neoliberal status quo over the voices of the marginalised.

And with that, brings up some more challenges. Will I make so many diverse original characters that they take time away from the canon characters? Should I make more canon MK characters differently diverse?

I'm also planning on having the characters display prejudices and bigotries but I'm scared I'll go in too much of "Bright" territory, if you know what I mean.

Tackling Mature Content

I mean, it goes without saying that the series is going to be full of violence and gore since that’s basically in the DNA of Mortal Kombat in the first place. But there’s much more serious topics I want to try to write. Like the effects of abuse, queer rights, the above themes about diversity and inclusion, the seemingly never ending war and the ideas of the long defeat. Of course, my chapters will be marked with as clear as possible content warnings, those are important.

A Shared Universe

A month ago, I watched a video about Midway trying to recreate the success of Mortal Kombat into other fighting games. The video, “Remember when Midway tried to copy Mortal Kombat?” talked about three would-be franchises of Midway fighting games; Mace: The Dark Age, War Gods and Bio FREAKS. After watching the video and reading about the games, I think it’d be good for lore if they were integrated into my story. Mace and War Gods could be used as part of the backstory of the series. Like the idea of the Earthrealm Kombatants being the descendants of the characters of Mace and War Gods, maybe Raiden was involved with the later, I’m not sure. Bio FREAKS could be latter used if I go into a time travel story. Maybe a mix of the game and the story/characters of Mortal Kombat X. As for Midway’s other successful but overlooked franchise, Killer Instinct, that is probably going to be the most recurring element in the shared universe. UltraTech, the main villains of the series would be the people behind such things as Kano’s cyborg eye, the Lin Keui’s Cyber Initiative and being the rulers of Neo-Amerika in the Bio FREAKS timeline. I also wrote in the profiles of Nightwolf and Sub-Zero that the Killer Instinct universe is linked to my story (one of his divorced parents is dating one of the parents of KI’s Black Eagle and Thunder while Glacius was an alien that helped give Cryomancers their powers).

And on a side note, there is another Midway MK clone called Primal Rage, which I swear I had one of the toys based on it and saw a parody of it on an episode of Dexter’s Laboratory. Its pretty gruesome, its a bunch of savage Kaiju in a post-apocalyptic earth that resembles the stone age. Probably an alternate timeline/dimension if I use it in my series. Who knows, maybe elements of the worlds of Street Fighter and or God of War could make an appearance...

Writing the Damned Thing

Probably the absolute hardest part of this entire thing. I struggle with actually keeping attention to writing since I’m primarily a visual artist and it feels terrible to not even follow through on any idea I have and it just kinda sits and collects dust in my brain. If its sketching and rendering, I can do it. If its writing shit down, I just have executive dysfunction when it comes to it. I never know where to start writing it, how to continue writing it, how to finish it or how to put it all together cohesively.

I can’t do this without at least writing the complete first season, if I do it on a semi-regular basis, nothing is going to be done. Even like, less than a week of non-recurring writing is like a poison to me. I don’t know how, but if I make room for an hour or two of writing a day every day might help me get more prepared for longer writing.

In Conclusion

When will the first chapter be done? I don’t know. When will I start writing? Hopefully as soon as I can. I can try to post updates or work in progresses, but that’s still a pipe dream, in my honest opinion. But I want to make progress in 2020, I need to make a difference and to actually make this coming year worthwhile.

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

I'm very careful not to get drunk on the job- I rub shoulders with people who could get me fired in a moment- so I don't really understand why I enjoy getting drunk afterward. Maybe it's like washing my hands- washing my mind so my clients' dirty neoliberal notions of how the world works can't stick, can't sink in. I really am sorry to write you, Prat, on the one hand- but on the other, I feel as if you dropped a hot IP ban on me it'd do me a world of good, free me from this dream of friendship.

Ah manUhI guess I'll address other stuff I rolled my eyes at in the previous ask..Ok. Pretending this IS the verax I know, there is a spot in my heart for reacting against hatred that infests and corrodes spaces of revelry and community. You danced a fine dance on tumble to avoid being banned but really let your nuts hang low in my chat with ur antisemitism, racism, whateverism and such to a degree in your comfort around me. So much, that it polluted the vibe of the space to the point that most people began to want out. I could feel the chat shrivel up every time you let those nuts hang low. The channer in me is the old guard weeb that witnessed boards go to shit from it. FRESH CONTENT and gut punch irreverent humour that sought to slay sacred bulls get sidelined for echochambers of genocidal hatred veiled as shock humour with little tolerance for bantz at it's own expense. Like... you, or rather, white nationalists and reactionaries bereft of selfawareness, have a habit of colonizing spaces in a way that is hard to ignore. A habit that I've seen kill boards, at least the dynamism that gives them distinctly fun or shitposty qualities. The channer in me that enjoys cumtown is revulsed by the thinly veiled rage and soured, pathetic hatred of post O&A Anthony Cumia. There's a flavour to irreverence that simply isn't present in those "I'm just joking :)" subversion of spaces into more fronts for the storm. A distinct disrespect and disregard for the space you inhabit and the people who dwell in it. These are the nicest terms I can communicate what proglefts would flatly say "yuo are Nazi :DDDD" and wash their hands of it.With regard to your treatment of me.. It's less my comfort, cus I don't give a shit about how people refer to me (actually the e>girl thing was funny and cute and I still use that...) and more my responsibility toward custodianship of such spaces as my chat. I hate echo Chambers and the intensity of your attitude forces the creation of them in the spaces you inhabit, especially when your reaction to being held to what you post would be "lmao just joking why are u so mad" and dodge confrontation or responsibility that way. Always drawing a veil or obfuscation over your interactivity with others. You don't connect and bond so much as seek to manipulate. Which, of course is antisocial to say the least... Manipulative, even.It's endearing you seem to respect my identity to a degree now, which actually makes me think this isn't you, but then again you DID soften your tone toward me in time wrt that.. in ur own little way..... But in any case, you caught my attention by telling me I drink retard juice at all times and not hide behind the cowardice of anonymity while doing so. However, catching my attention and respect is not the same as capturing my affinity. I befriend people who respect me, and to this, I have alot of friends who don't have to routinely be mentally taxing or demand energy to engage with. What I do for fun and mental gymnast, Galaxy braining sport is not what I do for social self fulfilment. I still have enough self respect to draw a line. I can't be so close to someone so diametrically opposed to my values that it causes me endless frustration and stress grappling it.So, with all that said, I hope you consider any amount of that and not in a way that doesn't figure into your idealizations of subversion and further your anti social behaviour. But again, idk if ur the real verax or not... If friendship is what you seek, please recognize how your behaviours fly in the face of that, how it narrows those prospects This is the L that comes with holding those values and being so angry and full of rage.. hate.AnywayIn B4 real verax shows up and puts down this larp. Lol

[justineabrugena]

Privileges and Positionality: academia and the rest of the world

PRIVILEGE — it’s a word that has been constantly dropped and discussed as I did my graduate studies, and it’s something that I have been acutely aware and conscious of for the past year and a half. Maybe if someone asked me two or three years ago if I consider myself privileged, I would have answered, “no, not really, I don’t think so. Whatever I had, I had to work hard and fight for it.”. Even when I went to one of the premier (and most expensive) universities in the Philippines, I did not necessarily saw myself as privileged. I worked hard to be there, fought to be there, and begged to be there. I was the scholarship and financial aid kid in a place full of wealthy privileged kids. Compared to them, I was the underprivileged. I equated privilege with money, and indeed it is an indicator of privilege, but only one amongst numerous indicators. 

In retrospect, I realized how self-centered and narrow that perspective was. The way I saw it before, it was either you have it or you don’t. I saw privilege as a ‘dirty’ word, something to be afraid of, and something that if associated with oneself would make someone bad or worse someone who perpetuates the system of inequalities. To someone who had to fight for whatever they had, acknowledging their privilege felt like discrediting the hardwork, tears, blood and pain, that came with getting what one had. But then I realized, privilege is not something that’s black or white. It’s more like a spectrum of monochrome; there are levels. One would be more privileged than others, but there are others who would be more privileged than one. One’s privilege doesn’t really discredit any effort and hardwork that was done to achieve something, to be in something, to have something. Rather, what my graduate studies taught me, is that privilege is something inevitable; it is something that comes along whether one likes it or not. It is something that we all work for, something we get after all our efforts, tears, and pain. Privilege is not necessarily bad or evil, what makes it problematic, is when one doesn’t acknowledge it. So there you go, check your privilege and acknowledge it. Take it into account, how it affects your actions, how it affects yourself, relative to the rest of the world.

Why am I writing this? Well, first because I am privileged enough to have time to reflect, to think, to write. Second, because I just finished having coffee with a friend and we talked about this (see, I am privileged). Third, a few months ago my feathers were ruffled because I heard a discussion between an academic and another individual. The academic called some individuals irresponsible for not being able to grasp words that would be considered academic jargon in layman’s terms, which I interpreted as condescending because instead of responsibly and humbly pointing it out (and IDK, maybe try to do something about it), the academic just whined and ultimately deemed others irresponsible (maybe I misinterpreted what was said, maybe I’m overthinking, maybe Im putting words in the academic’s mouth). Fourth, I just wanted to share my thoughts about it and again I’m privileged enough to do so.

Privilege and academia

As someone who is currently in the academia, I am privileged to have read some of the works of Plato, of Machiavelli, of Kant, of Focault, of Wallerstein, of Spivak, of Bhabha, of many more literary and scholarly canons. I am privileged enough to know and understand, or at least grasp the complexity within big terms such as “feminism”, “queerness”,  “neoliberalism”, “post-colonialism”, “subaltern”, “socialism”, “humanism”,”intersectionality” and many more jargon. Just because others don’t completely grasp those words, or would confuse some terms with another, does not make them utterly irresponsible. To deem them irresponsible would be condescending, as it does not acknowledge the system of privilege that every one of us are placed in. If anything, one has to consider the question of why. Why does that happen? Maybe they just didn’t have the access to knowledge and to resources that some have, resources that I do as a graduate student in the developed West. Maybe, those people were taught by individuals who also have limited access to knowledge. Yes there’s Google and the internet nowadays, but do note that even what most people think as basic might be something that others only has limited access to. Moreover, accessing academic jargon is still limited — one still needs to pay for proper access to journals and books. My point is, what and how we know the world is brought by our privilege, and we have to see it relative to the others in the rest of the world.

Positionality

I think I first heard the word positionality during my graduate studies. It’s something that all my professors have repeatedly emphasized from the very beginning of our program. It's something that usually refers to the researcher’s place in relation to the research,but it definitely applies to our real life too. Each one of us are uniquely positioned in a certain way with regards to all others, which either makes us more privileged than others or less privileged than others in certain different circumstances. One can be considered privileged in a certain context and circumstance but that same individual might be less privileged when placed in a completely different context and circumstance. Our positions and privileges change over time as we accumulate knowledge, experience, network, etc. and as we go through different situations and circumstances throughout our lifetime. What is important though is to be aware of that position and how that positionality affects oneself and others. Still, it is a privilege being able to acknowledge our positionality, to even recognize it relative to the rest of the world. 

We are all little parts of a whole. We are just a tiny specks in the grand scheme of things in the world. Hence, we must realize who, what, why, and how we are in relation to others. It’s a humbling realization, and it’s something grad school gave me. It is definitely a privilege to be able to be in this higher echelons of education, but that is what it is, a privilege. Recognizing that privilege, and acknowledging my positionality keeps my feet on the ground, I think. Nonetheless, just because I’ve gained access to the high tower of Academia, it doesn’t mean that I have to stay there and view the world from atop. Academia doesn’t always have to be the tower that it is considered by the rest of the world. Jargons doesn’t always have to be jargons. The irony, is that I learned that in grad school, I learned that from the high tower of academia, because I was privileged to have met professors, colleagues, and classmates who constantly recognizes their positionalities, their privileges. They try their best to work beyond the tower, to be with the rest of the world, to constantly put their feet on the ground. I realize some may not have had this privilege, some might have met and learned from academics who prefer to be in the tower and condescendingly look down below, but that’s just a sad and tragic way to learn and live. Maybe this is just my privilege and positionality talking, but at the very least, I’m recognizing it and trying to distance myself from it for a moment of clarity.

***This was written for and first appeared at the EMMIR blog

[sakebytheriver]

There's these tags on this post that I think about a lot that says something along the lines of b99 being better because it made nice feel good conclusions to the sad plotlines they introduced whereas Superstore did not and it's like, you missed the entire point of Superstore bro

It's not meant to be wrapped up well and nice and pretty with a warm bow of emotional catharsis, the union plotline, the maternity leave plotline, every workers rights plotline goes nowhere because Superstore exists in OUR reality, b99 absolutely does NOT exist within our reality, there is not some nice super progressive quirky police precinct going through wacky shenanigans in the U.S of A, but there sure as hell are a bunch of quirky diverse weirdos who all work at a big boxstore trying desperately to unionize, to get one up on the bosses only to fail over and over again while also going about their daily lives doing stupid shit with their fave coworkers and killing time while on the clock any way they can in this country and that's the whole fucking point. I can't remember the details clearly and I can't find the right words to search to find the source, but I remember reading an article or hearing some radio piece or something idk years ago about how people who see a systemic issue being "solved" on a TV show or movie that's meant to motivate you into action against such oppression actually demotivates the audience from acting, maybe that's a complete bullshit misremembering, but it feels very apt to what Superstore ended up doing

It's doubtful to me that that would be entirely purposeful on Superstore's part, but they were also a show that knew it wanted to exist in our world and it didn't want to make this overly saccharine and unbelievable world where workers for one boxstore like Walmart would actually suceed in unionizing or getting any kind of compassion given to them by a giant billion dollar corporation in the great United States especially in the days before the pandemic when those corporations had been steadily massacreing unions since the days of Reagan

B99 delivered this overly cartoonish bumbling bafoonery of overly sweet and unbelievably well-meaning progressively politcal police officers in New York fucking City and their attempt to address police brutality or the effects of the pandemic and the protests was laughable at best and ultimately just more pinkwashed neoliberal copaganda in the end, but Superstore showed a group of working class weirdos doing their best and ultimately falling victim to a system bigger than them while still being real people trying to get through the day, some stuff was meh and not the best written, but to say that b99 was any better written just because they gave you a happy resolution is maddening to me, because the quality of writing on a purely entertainment side of things is so very close to call, not to mention this person also said they watched these shows to escape the shitty things in the world rather than be confronted by them, so like ultimately this person just did NOT get Superstore as a show

Anyways rant over thanks

Tbh it's kinda disappointing that there were two workplace sitcoms featuring talented diverse casts and really great writing out at the same time and somehow the beyond radical show about coworkers in a big boxstore that literally ended it's first season with a walk out and a workers strike saying from the very beginning with its whole chest that you should unionize, break the rules to give moms maternity leave, protect undocumented immigrants, and so much more was way less popular on this website than the one about cops

[socialistfashionblog-blog]

The history of the fashion blog is the history of class struggle. 

From around 2008 onwards I, like many others, watched the bubble swell and burst. Like many others, I followed an interest in FRUITS publications to flickr’s wardrobe_remix pool of photos. Looking at it now, it looks like there are about five people still uploading pictures but in its heyday, it was vibrant. Even now, the people who do post outfits there feel solidly unconventional. Which is not a criticism of their personalities in the slightest, I only quickly skimmed the group after all, but no one there looks like a page torn out of Vogue. Which is refreshing.

It was not so long after the emergence of fashion blogs as a space where personal style could genuinely be celebrated that they started to be co-opted. We’re at a point now where the two are not really any different, in terms of sucking up to big designers and brands to the point where there are little to no places where the business practices or poor aesthetic choices of a big enough designer will ever be questioned.

I kinda like Man Repeller in a very guilty pleasure sort of way. It’s like Buzzfeed for wealthy New Yorkers. Now that they’re trying to be political or something it is downright nightmarish. I’ve sort of always hated the maxim of “women don’t dress for the approval of men, they dress for other women!” because it is so much about dressing for certain kinds of women, at least when regurgitated by the likes of certain newspapers and blogs. It’s all very #imwithher. I have definitely felt inspired by the way friends of mine dress, and when you get a compliment on your clothes from a friend whose style you also admire, it is an amazing feeling. But that’s hardly the same as dressing to impress. We shouldn’t give fucks if we fail to impress!

Anyway, Style Bubble is usually good if only for stunning photography. But I also find her general cageyness about making a political statement is refreshing. I am admittedly a casual reader rather than a fan but in posts like this she tends to say something when she actually has something to say, rather than seizing on some ubiquitous topic that some random editor has decided is imperative. Idk the worst fashion media for this, maybe the guardian’s fashion page? I quite like la garconniere too, which has stuff about music and feminism and vintage and maternity and politics, even if the blog’s activity is dwindling.

But the most impressive and compelling thing I’ve read about clothes in the last year and a half has been Women In Clothes, a gorgeous and huge book that is genuinely diverse in its survey of women in a way that, perhaps I didn’t credit it with initially. I totally thought it would be something I would half love and half tolerate, like the OG Lula magazine, with its exquisite photoshoots and Bay Garnett styling... but also Lena Dunham veneration and stupid interviews with the vapid daughters of the privileged. But WIC is perfect. There are interviews with Cambodian garment workers on their personal style, and women over a hundred years old. There are stylists who have worked with Bryan Ferry and women who work in pest control. It’s beautifully made and beautifully written. Ok Lena Dunham is in it for about two pages but it’s like 800 pages long so you can skip those. Most crucially: there is no easy omission of any stage of the production process, from designers to seamstresses and sweatshop workers as well as consumers and the bizarrely intense psychology of how our clothes make us feel.

Fashion media - even blogs and instagrams with grassroots origins - has become a breeding ground for the kind of neoliberalism and centre right thought that leads to 99% white women’s marches and Karl Lagerfeld putting on feminist-protest-themed fashion shows and then laughing at Greek debt. No one needs me to list instances of the pointless half-feminism committed by the fashion world! There are so many! Look, I don’t want to pretend to sound like I’m an expert when I am not, by most definitions. But I do have an interest as a seamstress and as a socialist in finding a materialist view of fashion, in locating it within a feminism that does more than empower the wealthy and white, that acknowledges the role it plays within climate change and doesn’t tell you that buying a new lipstick counts as protesting Trump, or something! The fashion industry is eager to decry Trump but the problem is so clearly more than just him.

[nutzo0001]

and i said:

you make me worry of you... i get you, but i mean, you make it extreme, and do you want me to do something, or? like, what can we do, this is the luxury question that bothers me, we (well...) in slovakia live by "it dont matter i am living horrible, the main thing is the others have it worse", and lying, stealing (see our current coalition), like, it is not honest life, and idk if i can compensate the fact by those who want slovakia to be next germany, yet you see, every country has its shit, nothing is black and white, what i hate is this grey of it, the uncertainty, "buffyism" as (you?) say...

Matthew North Project

They Can't Kill The Truth

but as they say, even broken clock shows the right time twice a day - no one is right or wrong, and that there are no more facts bothers me. pro-russians tend to say "nothing is real, all of them is lying", eurobros (they sometimes mean it good, but cant live without neoliberal fantasy that NAFO will inherit world or something - more they hate "american way", they more agree, admit the technocracy….) - there is third wing too, but those are silent minority (maybe it is us here), who dont listen to neither… (some things below may be what i believe in, and so do my "twitter circle")

[etc... (lot of half-baked side-thoughts)]

not all of reddit and twitter and maybe tumblr too is brainrotten, they are just not heard good among the ads and shills and porn there are still reasonable people, - but i thought you are one of them, and it made me scared how far you go with your ideas. there are bad, unpopular, popular, and good ideas. your posts make me think of village crazie…

you might be right, but those who have intuition know (that this is how it ends, "accepting unacceptable" - saw it so many times) and who dont know, those would stay uninterested, unphased until they already "accepted" it…

also, this "simplification of thought"… like… that tactic goes as far as post-9/11 fear, words that franklin said are scaring feds away. i mean, if yo cant speak in terms of 0s and 1s, you are dangerous. the china system thats why Mulan or Marveôl (disney) after End Game went so retarded - no way, no means to form complex thoughts, images - or if theyd be able, theyd connect two and two together, that it is all about money, power, influence, so that nothing than family/community really matters… we cant talk, unite for common goal… even "common sense" is unknown term by now (what has world come to) - you dont simply do the things from sex and city… not because they are amoral (that too), but because they are impossible, inflated, fictional, they are sex fantasy ffs! (more people need to know about "suspension of disbelief", i see that thing everywhere!)

june travelogue - TA(L)KING FOR GRANTED - 0/25, 30/5/24

got idea - maybe it was daydream - about this very topic... i(t) was thinking out of nowhere - maybe i am idiot, or just censoring myself... because now, - bolts on my head - but i mean, wasnt this (except for data grab and so...), the reason why internet on which [we are] here, but to discuss [taboo]s!? now when, let me start, - we can argue later (in comments)! here here! what got me prompted, was idea - "men feel weak/useless - and so does/seems Mankind contra ["Rotten apples"]!" "Rotten apples", in quotes; had no better comparison, naming, and it quite fits [the reasons]. it, to me, points to [this; problem]; where, - to say - we are more comfortable, it is easier - to [throw away] rotten apples - than to take care of main issue, - our luxury and comfort, - that it is to [eat it] on the right time; to not forget (to care about ourselves too...) - and to not "miss forest for the trees", to say... (**) to "Men feel weak" - it is an nod to all Rogan, Tate and Peterson broskis Manosphere, who [slurp from] use inceldom, - turning desperation, basic needs (compassion /***) and call for help, into weapon. (prime example of) Rotten apples. - it is easier to militarize vulnerable ones with propaganda cheap promises and "tricks", than to admit, "yes, 90s were Woman decade never to be left alone; we (men) are sorry that when you are man, then all you do, is to be taken for granted (on that basis alone; when women turn "men", manhood, on basis of purpose, starts to lack behind...), no matter how left alone and unheard; maybe even silenced, you might feel!" (tl;dr: "to be born = to owe <pardon>") and other things we take for granted (dont worry, this is not cry-to post) :