#so while its fun to play in that space. lets talk about harm reduction

[aydascomprehendsubtext]

Housing is one of the many many issues where it's like. Once you are fully playing magic wand fiat Sim city godking there are some fascinating hard questions and tradeoffs you could spend your whole life digging into. and you would probably get a lot of them wrong and leave the next generation cursing your name. But you could also pass like two national laws and lop like 20% of the cruelty is the point shit right off the top

[autumnblogs]

Day 41: Caliborn: Enter

https://homestuck.com/story/4956 It’s pretty natural that Dirk’s move on Jake is going to put a strain on Jane’s friendship with him, even if he hasn’t made it yet; I think it definitely gives some insight into Jane that she reacts the way that she does. Not exactly a graceful loser, and in a way that is really pretty passive-aggressive.

She’s not as open and honest as Jade is; as the Prospit Dreamers go, in general, she’s really pretty guarded.

More after the Break

https://homestuck.com/story/4961

The AR, I feel like, gives us a pretty good look into who Dirk is, and while we already know that he impulsively jumps to the first solution he can think of, we can see through the shades that he tends to advise people to do the same things that he does.

Dirk is an extremely headstrong guy, and while he’s both very intelligent, and would really like to be a Puppetmaster, he can’t help but let his personality shine through his puppets; and he can’t help but let his first inclination determine his course of action. He’s him, after all. Why would he question his own judgement?

A bit like how Kermit the Frog is really just Jim Henson the Frog.

https://homestuck.com/story/4962

So what is a Juju?

Juju is a word which comes from French, and means plaything. It is a term that has been used to characterize the Folk Magic and/or Folk Religion of the people of West Africa, in much the same way that Totem has been, or that Fetish has been. In a nutshell, Juju can mean both Spiritual Power (as Mana), and an Object of Spiritual Power (as an Amulet) - the physical manifestation of the thing, and the thing itself are the same, in this sense.

The God and the Idol are the same - at least, they are to the external viewer. While it should be clear that this is a reductive view of it, the fact of the matter is that, a central part of a lot of religious practice in general is to treat the image of a thing, and the thing itself, as though they are the same; and we see this sort of image-based performance all throughout homestuck, through symbols, and rituals, especially where they are empty signifiers - symbols and rituals that have been emptied of their original meaning, and are now practiced only for their own sake.

Following the rules actually doesn’t seem to pay all that much in the world of Homestuck, and almost universally leads to disaster - which in no small part appears to be because the creator of the rules is Lord English.

https://homestuck.com/story/4965

I think it’s pretty interesting that Caliborn’s conception of smut is something as tame as fluffy hand-holding and caressing. While on the one hand, we can just say “Cherubs think it’s taboo because they can only enjoy Caliginous romance” I think we can also associate it with the relatively sexless nature of Homestuck, beyond how horny the characters are, and a few oblique references (which is not a bad thing; it’s about teenagers). In spite of all of the suggestive language and content, there is no possibility of consummation in Homestuck, or even until well after the end of Homestuck, because Caliborn’s vision of intimacy is a sexless one.

https://homestuck.com/story/4967

This takes a turn for the fucked up at the end. I mean, it’s all fucked up to begin with, but it’s such a non-sequitur.

https://homestuck.com/story/4968

Caliborn uses consumption related metaphors and imagery in relation to smut. Aside from jokes about Vore, what’s the significance of that? That the intention of Caliborn and Calliope is to comment on the fandom of Homestuck itself (continuing the identification of the Characters with the Audience that we discussed yesterday) is not really a secret to anyone. How does Caliborn view engaging with Homestuck, and how does he therefore view engaging with Andrew? His view is Hegemonistic and Predatory. From his point of view, the universe he inhabits is full of things to be consumed; objects to absorb, break down into the parts of themselves that make him more powerful, and the parts that can be discarded.

https://homestuck.com/story/4970

I really never get tired of Caliborn, he’s so awful.

https://homestuck.com/story/4971

His conception of human romance is one where he conceives of women as essentially objects of gratification; woman on woman is allowed, I suspect, for much the same reason that it is often rationalized that f*tanari porn isn’t gay; how could jackin’ it to two women be gay?

The idea of women as actors who exist for reasons other than to gratify men, and other than to gratify Caliborn in particular does not occur to him.

Obviously, men don’t exist to gratify each other. That’d be too mutualistic.

https://homestuck.com/story/4981

The Interplay of Sex and Violence.

As long as this sequence is pretty much over;

Why does Caliborn want to play a game? I think the answer is in line with the overall theme of Homestuck. Cultural transmission.

In his book Homo Ludens Dutch historian Johan Huizinga discusses the nature of Play as an element of cultural transmission, and as a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the generation of culture.

What this means in a nutshell is; Games aren’t the only thing that is necessary for culture to be created, but they are necessary for culture to be created. Can’t have culture without games. A big part of this is because games serve as a stage for human beings to symbolically and ritualistically practice the activities that, as a member fo their culture, they will one day have to perform in order to survive.

This is why games like Tag, and Hide and Seek are the oldest in the world; humans are persistence predators, we hunt down our prey by just not giving the fuck up.

Caliborn’s game is Irony and Porn; insincerity, reproductive activity, etc. and gaming is intrinsically competitive to him; he uses his game as a form of power over Dirk Strider, the power to make him suffer, although since he’s such a dweeb, he’s pretty bad at making him suffer.

https://homestuck.com/story/4986

Meenah likes games too, but her enjoyment of them seems to be a lot more authentic, sincere - as opposed to being a form of power for her to hold over her enemies, her little word-games, with her fish-puns, are a source of legitimate joy to her, and the fact that Aranea will engage her in them creates friendship between the two of them.

https://homestuck.com/story/5027

All this may not have a whole lot of substance to it (I’m making posts at this point almost 40 pages apart), but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of worth. Homestuck has plenty of pathos, and in spite of the fact that Andrew adores making fun of us for caring about these characters, I do actually care about all of these characters.

They sure have come a long way.

https://homestuck.com/story/5083

As Roxy is ostensibly the stealth leader of her session, we should generally be willing to accept her takes as gospel in a way that we don’t take other characters’ (at least to a certain extent). We just got done talking about how important rules are to the cherubs, and to Caliborn explicitly - we should take heed of the fact that Roxy is very willing to throw caution to the wind and abandon the rules.

Rules in Paradox Space are largely harmful restrictions to be worked around, rather than auspicious maxims to adhere to.

https://homestuck.com/story/5071

Caliborn is a serial forced memer. We’ve already talked oodles and oodles about symbols and rituals and empty signifiers; what is a forced meme except for an empty signifier? An attempt by a malicious third party to turn a meaningless set of pictures and words into a symbol, a symbol that signifies nothing other than itself, and commands the attention and adherence of people in the culture? Rules for the sake of rules. Memes for the sake of memes.

https://homestuck.com/story/5089

Roxy’s anxious babbling is just so much like Dave’s, it’s hilarious. Their language less so.

https://homestuck.com/story/5092

The answer to what a ball’s topspin is, by the way, if you didn’t already know is

an English.

https://homestuck.com/story/5099

Why does Calliope want to be a Troll so badly?

The answer is that she doesn’t want to be a Cherub.

Why doesn’t she want to be a Cherub?

That question could probably keep me up all night, but I think I have an answer right away. Cherubs are arbitrarily powerful, and Calliope does not want to be a Cherub. She wants to be anything other than a Cherub. I can kind of relate to that, even as a human being. After all, there aren’t cherubs and trolls around, even though they are conceivable. Of all of the things we know for sure that consciously exist in our own universe, humans are the most powerful things we know exist for sure. I’d spend a lot to not be one; power, after all, makes us more inhuman.

https://homestuck.com/story/5116

Since I can’t pass up an opportunity to comment on the metanarrative indulgence of the second half, let’s pause to appreciate the term MacGuffin; in a nutshell, an object which exists to be desired. Its only purpose in the story is for someone to want it.

https://homestuck.com/story/5217

The fact that Dirk is conscious of the internal head-goings-on of Brain Ghost Dirk, and is therefore, to some extent cognizant of the head-goings-on of Jake English just opens up so many questions that I still don’t really have an answer to.

https://homestuck.com/story/5238

I rag on Dirk a lot for being a piece of shit.

But man, he is so cool.

https://homestuck.com/story/5246

This entire awful romantic escapade has been created by the Auto-responder, and while Dave has been complicit in it, he is not the puppetmaster behind it. Sound familiar?

https://homestuck.com/story/5252

This flash is just so delightful to me.

It’s the first time Roxy has ever touched another living human being and look how delighted she is.

LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE IS.

https://homestuck.com/story/5261

Now that we know who Lord English is, we have an opportunity to get to know him a little more as a person. Aside from his absurd commitment to puzzle-murders, his strange relationship with romance and sexuality, and his awful and perfunctory craftsmanship, here’s the most important thing to understand about him;

He will always destroy something irreplaceable if it means he can acquire more power.

[somerandomg33k]

Are you the person you hope you’d become? Why/why not?

A friend a tough question to their friends, "Are you the person you hope you'd become? Why/why not?" That got me thinking. And since I was thinking, I sat down and started typing. And typed out the following 619 words.... That is a good question. It depends on who I want to be, and it differs during different times of my life. I wanted to be an actor. And yes, I can still do acting in some regards. But I never admitted to doing it as a career, honestly, out of fear of being impoverished and homeless. Absolutely possible with what I know now about politics. More on that later. I played online poker for years and had a lot of fun during so. The dream of winning the big tournaments was always there. But then the crackdown on online poker happened in the US, and I lost my drive. I wasn't confident enough to leave home and go to Canada or elsewhere to play online poker. Plus, I have difficulty breaking out of my comfort zone sometimes. Moving out of the country or to another is scary to me. But now I am more politically active and an Anarchist. Oh, wait, the crackdown on Anarchist groups and pages has been happening on Facebook. It happens to individuals too. Both Trump and Joe Biden hates Anarchists. Oh, wait. I am a Libertarian Socialist. Yea that works. Which is often very different from the "Libertarians" most Americans meet. Understandable. They stole our word. But finally on to the point. While I love to dismantle the White Supremacist Cishetro Patriarchal Ableist Settler Colonialist Imperialist Capitalism and The State that upholds the White Supremacist Cishetro Patriarchal Ableist Settler Colonialist Imperialist Capitalism, I understand how unlikely that isn't going to happen in my lifetime. But I have to believe it is possible that can happen in my lifetime. Otherwise, my future is very bleak. With the system as it currently is, I can't see myself owning home. That I would necessarily want to, other giving housing to all of my trans friends and disabled comrades. So I will always be living in an apartment, maybe one as cheap as I can. And I can't see myself retiring anything in my lifetime, so long as there is still Capitalism around. And let's not forget about the Climate Change disaster happening in like nine years. Capitalism isn't helping with that either. So while the goal of world-wide Libertarian-Socialism and Communism is very far off, the person I want to be is someone doing what they can to work towards that. I am pretty much financially supporting two people who are both disabled and really just need a sugar parent to live comfortably in this world of Capitalism, which is inherently Ableist. I do tend to put myself in spaces where the ideas of Libertarian-Socialism is new; some folks and challenge their views on the current system. I have created a Google Doc full of charity and causes links and share it around to places so that at least eyeballs are at least seeing the links. I have been that others also share around that Google Doc in other places. And while I personally wish I could do more, I talk about local organizing and more effective direct action as opposed to voting, not saying voting isn't important, it is harm reduction but has its limits, and I talk about having a Revolution, but I don't feel like I am doing that enough or to the degree, I wish I could. But I do get reminded that I am doing plenty. I am doing a lot that others with very little spoons can't do. Or others who don't have the time and energy to achieve much other than surviving. And I personally more Liberals would be radicalized to being actually Leftists and be at least Anti-Capitalists. But I can't convert everyone, and I should recognize that.

[freedom-of-fanfic]

I can't for the life of me understand the weird overlap between ace discoursers and kink discoursers on Tumblr. It makes sense with homophobic Christians, but not on a place like Tumblr fandom. How do discoursers put these together, rhetorical styles aside?

What a good question.  Let me see if I can explain my understanding of this in less than a 10K-word essay for once.

A one-sentence summary of the overlap would be kinky people and ace people are both seen as invaders of LGBT spaces. (I’ll be using ‘LGBT’ as opposed to ‘LGBT+/queer’ to refer to non-straight/non-cis spaces that exclude people who identify as queer.)

This concept that kink communities and ace people are suddenly trying to get in on the LGBT fun is ahistorical.  Having a kink doesn’t make you queer, but kink communities have long been a haven for LGBT+/queer people and have many non-straight/non-cis people in their clubs, bars, and communities. they provide good spaces for questioning people to explore their sexual/romantic interests.  And ace people, frequently identifying themselves as bisexual as the ace identity was so invisible, have long been part of LGBT+/queer communities. 

However, this is how exclusionists perceive them. They see kinky people and ace people as kind of like flip sides of a coin, so the talking points for each group are strikingly similar:

kinky people & ace/aro people don’t experience social stigma or harm for being kinky/ace. ‘nobody cares about your sex life,’ exclusionists scoff, while simultaneously caring a lot about their sex lives. (This is predicated on misunderstanding ace identities as being synonymous with celibacy or sex-repulsion. In reality, asexuality is simply not experiencing sexual attraction to others.) In reality, both kinky people and ace/aro people experience lots of social stigma, and ace people are sometimes singled out for harm because of their identity.

kinky people & ace/aro people can both be ‘cishet’, so they do not belong in LGBT spaces. kinky people may be only attracted to the ‘opposite’ gender & identify with their birth-designated sex & gender. ace people may be only romantically interested in people of the ‘opposite’ gender and identify with their birth-designated sex & gender. Because some ace/kinky people are like this, all kinky people and all ace people are either outright excluded or carefully screened for the proper qualifications to be LGBT.

kink communities and ace/aro communities create alternative spaces where ‘real’ LGBT people are encouraged to deny their true identity.  to ensure LGBT people are forced to come to terms with their true identity, the communities they hide in must be kept distinct from LGBT spaces. This is ironic because kinky spaces have long provided a space for questioning people to explore non-straight or non-cis experiences without being forced to immediately ‘choose a side’, and ace communities are frequently very encouraging of people to move in and out of the identity as they discover themselves.

the fresh rise of purity culture in the US through a combination of factors causing ’abnormal’ sexual acts and ’abnormal’ sexual desire to be perceived as  forbidden, scary, and dirty in a way it wasn’t for a decade or two has had its own weird part to play in this. (Though ‘abnormal’ no longer always includes monogamous cis mlm and wlw the way it used to.) the tl;dr version is ace people are overly prudish and kinky people are overly sexual rather than staying between the Acceptable Sexual Interests/Displays boundaries.

sexual myth 1: ace/aros think LGBT people are disgusting for wanting sexual relationships but want to be in the LGBT Cool Club anyway. through a combination of factors including but not limited to misunderstandings of what asexuality is, some ace people making bigoted or unthinking statements that have been virally spread, and the pure/prude dichotomy of being perceived as sexually abstinent (sex is dirty, but not wanting sex is inhuman), ace-identifying people have a reputation for looking down on and disdaining LGBT people for being ‘dirty allos’ while simultaneously wanting in on the ‘special’ status of LGBT circles. This is a weirdly self-contradictory myth - why would you want to be part of a community with people you despise? - but there you are.

sexual myth 2: suggesting a minor may be asexual is inappropriately sexualizing them. asexuality is the realization of an absence of sexual desire, which can make it hard to identify. some people argue that implying a minor can identify as asexual is inappropriate. Minors aren’t yet sexually aware enough of themselves to make that assessment. If a minor thinks they might be asexual, it’s more likely they just haven’t matured enough to have sexual interest.  In reality, a minor might already know - and if not, they are always free to identify differently later.

sexual myth 3: kink communities are entirely made up of sexual abusers and their self-deluded prey. In this reductive and mistaken view, all kinky relationships are abusive. clg and ddlg are indistinguishable from csa, bdsm is physical abuse, pet play is beastiality … and you’ve exhausted the concepts of ‘kink’ that most anti-kink people have. LGBT circles aren’t safe spaces for these abusers!  But in reality kink is much more broad than these circles and when handled and negotiated correctly, clg/ddlg/bdsm/etc are enjoyable and safe for all participants.

sexual myth 4: public LGBT+/queer demonstrations, parades, etc should always be child-friendly/safe spaces, so kink is unwelcome. ace/aro people are too prudish for LGBT communities, but kinky people are too flamboyant. the example I see over and over again is ‘imagine a kid going to a pride parade and seeing a guy on a leash and collar crawling around on all fours. How will you explain that to them!?’ This shows some severe lack of awareness of how nsfw Pride demonstrations could once get!  But when you take away the alarmist ‘think of the children!’ language, it’s clearly a game of respectability politics - specifically, Pride making itself respectable to the straight, cis(, non-kinky) majority. A kinky mlm couple - while gay, and clearly LGBT - would not find it is acceptable to be kinky in a public Pride space anymore because the image of Pride has cleaned up. 

All this care about how sexuality is expressed in LGBT+/queer spaces is because in its most mainstream form, Pride is no longer presented as counter-culture. Pride displays are more often aimed at ‘we’re just like you [cishets]!’ acceptability now, rather than the sometimes vulgar displays demanding recognition that they exist (and aren’t going away).

(This is also why shedding the ‘queer’ label is important. ‘Queer’ has come to represent ‘people who aren’t straight and/or cis, but also aren’t necessarily fitting any label.’ These are mostly people still struggling against invisibility, being counter-culture to keep from fading from existence - but they’re not helping the respectability angle too much.)

long story short, both kinky people and ace people are socially unacceptable to LGBT exclusionary groups for mirroring reasons, resulting in vetting practices that harm questioning people and purity demands that weirdly echo … well, homophobic Christians.

(All that to get right back where we started.)

[batjoyfulmagazinestudent-blog]

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