#problems without solutions

[mirthandcruelty]

I’m not even close to the first person to say this, but technology is getting worse at a frightening rate. It’s gussied up to look better, with fancy graphics and touch screens where user interfaces should go, but I have less and less interactions with technology that don’t end with me frustrated or disgusted. 

Most recently, I had to get a new laptop and it camed prepackaged with Windows 11. Just like anyone else with any sense I’ve been putting off upgrading from ten for months and while I have a good copy of 10 to downgrade to, I just wanted to hop on and start getting some shit done.

Motherfuckers blocked me from running ninite. Not just that, the default is to block any software that doesn’t come from the Microsoft store. The corporations who create technology aren’t just trying to sand off rough edges, they’re trying to flatten everything into a single flat plane and leaving nothing but sawdust behind. 

I know that I could downgrade, or switch to linux or whatever, but that feels like a temporary solution at this point. This is happening everywhere. With Twitter crumbling and facebook blocking ill defined “sensitive” content without recourse, it feels like online habitats are undergoing deforestation. You have to go farther and farther afield to access functionality that was basic and low hanging ten years ago.  How the hell does progress look like walling us all into smaller and smaller walled gardens?

I have no idea how to fix any of this. It feels very much beyond individual action, but I don’t even know how you would organize anything collective to stop it. It just sits on my mind, filling me with despair along with the Canadian smoke darkening the skies, and the resurgent fascism cropping up the world over. 

I wish I could have hope that things will get better, but my entire life has been a confluence of ineptitude, malevolence and commercial interests making things worse. Technology sucks, and just like everything else, it makes me sad.

[alexxuun]

I just want to say- whatever brain altering chemistry they put into this type of pairing? Compels me.

[skitskatstudios]

Obsessed with this revelation that Saiki, with all his powers and abilities, can’t play a musical instrument.

[toskarin]

miss Toskarin you’re not convincing me that Skyrim was the ruin of all western rpgs. In fact you’re convincing me that the issues began with oblivion.

I'd better be careful or else I might convince you of my less loudly-held beliefs

[sosuigeneris]

why is being feminine seen as catering to patriarchy?

I enjoy putting on my make up, heels, I like looking good, I enjoy traditionally “feminine activities” like baking and cooking, I love a good gossip session with my girls, I’m empathetic and warm when I want to be, I can be very nurturing if I choose to be, I want kids someday and I want to be married. I can do all these things and still work my ass off in my business, close massive deals, be invited to speak for interviews, and conferences, be perceived as a leader without emulating alpha male behaviour.

By saying that doing feminine things caters to the male gaze and patriarchy, you’re putting women down. You’re inherently stating that being masculine is “correct” and “cool” and enjoying being feminine is “weak” and “vulnerable.”

oooooh buT YoUre doInG aLL tHiS fOr a MaN-

and even if I did, sometimes, do those things because I like a boy - what’s the issue?? If I’m invited on a date and I like him, and I want to look great, what’s the ISSUE? If he’s going to show up dressed well and groomed to look good for me, why won’t I? And if you’re going to choose to go out with a man who is an absolute dusty rat that doesn’t care about his appearance and hygiene, sorry but that’s on YOU. The first date might be a human error of judgement which happens, but going on a second date with said rat is unforgivable.

“meN aRe NeVeR subJecTed to tHesE stAndarDs”

by YOU. I sure hold men by the same standards that I hold myself. My standards are high. Just the way I hold myself to a certain standard, I hold men to the same. I’m not going to muck around with a guy who clearly does not meet my expectations. I’ve told off men for bad breath, bad manners, I ensure that my brothers and my closest guy friends are always looking good when needed, and I tell them when they do and don’t. I surround myself with good male friends I know I’d be ecstatic to marry my sister off to. Don’t pretend like your shitty low standards and mine are the same.

I don’t believe in blame game and low standards and it shows.

You guys really need to understand that it is alright to be multifaceted. Just because I enjoy baking doesn’t mean that I don’t like adventure sports, just because I enjoy doing my self care and meditation doesn’t mean I don’t understand politics and history and “Big Boy Subjects.” I may not enjoy F1 and sports but there are girls out there who do, and they also enjoy wearing dresses.

stop the unnecessary labelling and categorisation of people.

[rileys-battlecats]

girl help I started writing down oc thoughts and have started contemplating the logistics of how a city carved into the walls of a ravine would have access to fresh water

[dadrielle]

Part of the reason I am so jazzed about the conversation with the Arch Heart is because it has removed the illusion of this being an easy choice. As Orym said, and as he has been operating on the assumption of, the people of Exandria are like ants to something like Predathos, likely to be crushed underfoot. Correct, yeah. But the point of the Arch Heart's responses was that the same is true of the gods. The world is faced with a scenario where one way or another, some power is very likely going to be unleashed and put quite a lot of people in danger. Unless they can somehow very quickly quell the gods' fear*, either the gods or Predathos will be freed and stomping ants.

That refocuses the question. People are going to die. The question is, how long will the danger go on? And what kind of world will be left, after?

Juicy!

[lovelessrage]

The way so many aro people see other aro people talk about aro loneliness and their solution isn't to support them, or lend an ear or a shoulder, but instead to say "have you tried getting more friends?" "you still can have friends though!" "QPRs are out there! Try one of those!" "Hey have you heard of a QPR yet?" You are not better than people who treat getting a romantic relationship as a cure-all. You are doing the exact same "a relationship will fix you!" routine and I'm kinda tired of aros treating it as different because it's platonic.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

i think when cherik fuck charles just has to control himself so much that he reaches the point where he gets almost no pleasure because of the efforts and erik just doesn't see that for a long time bc charles is very good at simulating whatever it is so they fuck and erik is happy and cherles is close to tears every time because yeah he had sex but he spent all time of it struggling to remain control of his abilities and he didn't have orgasm and he just doesn't know what to do because he's afraid to tell erik and he's afraid to stop doing that because he thinks he'd project his thoughts and feeling all over the mansion and he's afraid to go on the way he does because it's exhausting and kinda awful

sorry im in the mood for angsty thoughts about charles's telepathy sorry

you jsut gon say this in fronta my salad. ..,

[pixelbumblebee]

I wish I could send some non-typewritten love letters to the music/sound effect department that worked on dead boy detectives. So many of the sudden tonal shifts are carried by carefully placed soundtrack behind the dialogue, without which I don't think they would work as exceptionally as they do.

[official-lucifers-child]

i’ve seen the word “unalive” too many goddamn times today so everyone say it with me!! die!! kill!! death!! harm!! injure!!!

along the same vein!!! rape is not a word that should be fucking censored!! sexual harassment is not a bad word!! sexual assault, sexuality, sex, etc are not bad words!!!! censoring any of those words makes people less likely to talk about them, especially in direct and coherent ways!! it makes it harder to talk about those topics!!!

stop self-censoring these terms!!! please!!!!!

[shannonsketches]

I just think Toei gives Vegeta a lot of shit for a guy who's maintained his rank within the top ten most powerful beings in the mortal realm since he was like five years old.

[uncanny-tranny]

I think it's a mistake to assume that computer generation (so-called AI) is the only manifestation of the exploitation that workers (especially in artistic fields that are already considered lesser) experience. The problems that they experience are, I think, exasperated by computer generation, but it isn't like there were no problems with compensation, theft, or other forms of exploitation.

The problem is the exploitation, and I think sometimes, people lose sight of that in these conversations.

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Total$hit$how: AU Masterlist

DYSTOPIAN

AU Summary

Fall Guy

By the Stars

MILITARY

AU Summary

Hunter's Interrogation

Sahota's Side (cw: starvation)

Rescue (Sahota)

WESTERN

Left Behind

Failed Robbery

Recovery

Bonding

Showgirl

MENAGERIE

AU Summary

Joy (Anggitay)

Kaius (Kinnara)

Jericho (Merman)

Benji (Jistu)

Hunter (Kumiho)

Veronica (Succubus)

Go (Comic)

Selkie Surprise (comic)

Between Bars (art)

Bow (comic)

CYBERCREW

Not Me

CORPORATE

Bodyguard Hunter

TEST TRACK

Vic loans out Sahota to a buddy to test out and rate interrogation and torture methods.

Test One: Electrocution

Test Two: Spikes

Test Three: Salt

Test Four: Ribs

Test Five: Blanket

Test Six: Water

Test Seven: Overload

Transcript #1

Test Eight: Dangled

Test Nine: Deprivation

Transcript #2

Test Ten: Waterboarding

Test Eleven: Crucified

Test Twelve: Cut

Transcript #3

Test Thirteen: Wire

Transcript #4

Discipline #2

Test Fourteen: Flayed

Test Fifteen: Jason

Test Sixteen: Tank

Test Seventeen: Surprise

Test Eighteen: Hot Flash

Transcript #5

Test Nineteen: Organs

SCI-FI

A Poor Imitation

Reprisal

Decoy

TIME TRAVEL

Small

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

Why is Steven acting like all hope is lost? He could use his White Diamond power to possess the Cluster and make it not explode the Earth

Sure he could! Just like all the problems on earth can be solved immediately and without any complications and consequences if someone just took ALLLLLL the plastic in the ocean and launched it into space. Nothing hard about that at all. :)

[virtualcarrot]

[DE] musing abt the limits of superficial acab discourse and the way fandom deals with moral discomfort, I guess

“ACAB”, “the only happy ending should be leaving the RCM”, “you’re a terrible person if you draw/write these characters enjoying the sort of corrupt cop stuff that they canonically do in-game” discourse is killing meeee

God forbid you don’t performatively remind everyone that you do hate cops, actually; and god forbid that you don’t find that True Healing and Happiness for Disco Elysium’s characters can only be achieved by leaving the force.

Metas could be written about how Kim and Harry are actually deeply flawed people who enjoy wielding some form of authority in a way that they actually feel best working as cops

(is it healthy? no. is it Good™? no. Is it true to their character? this is where media interpretation comes in)

Metas could be written about how that doesn’t mean ACAB isn’t real, that just means they’re the kind of shitheads (that we, the players, still love) who enjoy being cops

Metas could be written questioning the amount they’d have to change to adapt to a life as civilians, how much and what kind of a push they’d need to go for it,  if it’s change they could even manage, if they could financially survive it, if they could find fulfillment in any other career, at their age

But no. Why waste time on that instead of easy slogans. I mean, we like them, these characters, and we don’t want to feel guilty for liking them, because what does it say about us, then, that we like flawed cops?

(nothing it says nothing it says we played a good nuanced extremely well-written game that skillfully made us like the sort of character whose past actions include sequestering some woman and beating a dude into disability. that’s what it says. i’d even argue that discomfort is part of the point)