#they should obviously have the funds to take more time on their products while also paying their devs enough

[weaselishmcdiesel]

pokemon rant ahead bc im a born hater what can i say <3

playing scarlet and i just caught chien pao which i wanted on my team before id started playing and was just picking which pokemon i like best. the fucking?? running animation?? is fucked up?? there SEEMS to be a walking animation like it exists and i get a glimpse of it every now and then but it seems like it refuses to use anything but the running animation. so you cant reasonably walk beside the pokemon because its animation is freaking the fuck out, angles get fucky, the thing runs ahead of you, just bad. it's just i really wish that the follow mechanic wasn't dogshit, i want to stroll around with my pokemon not lagging behind. how come every other game can figure out a follow mechanic. how come modders can figure it out (there's maybe a chance the pokemon is stuck running because i caught it at a higher level than my current badges give me control over but idk if that's how the game works)

and another thing i noticed (that everyone else probably noticed bc this game has been out for a while lmfao but-) the entire world feels like it was MADE for exploration on koraidon. if we compare it to botw/totk, the terrain in those games doesnt feel like they were made for horseback exploration. there are so many huge wide expanses in scarlet that, the moment you get off your ride, you feel small and out of place. like there's absolutely no incentive to walk around on your own because everything is too far away to comfortably explore on your own (and also there's hardly anything TO explore. everywhere is empty and boring and repeating). botw does not suffer from this at all, all the environments feel realistic in scale. and i wish if the game were more focused on the horseback (pokemonback?) exploration that there was more fidelity to koraidon's animations and mechanics. I believe it's called procedural animation, the ability for a model to react to the environment it's in (ei, when link is on a slope, his leg will bend and his foot will rest realistically on an incline, same goes for horses in botw when theyre on inclines. these are calculations the game makes in the moment of execution, not rendered out during development accounting for every possible position a player could be on a slope). i feel like this should happen with koraidon at the least, if you're going to be on it for the majority of the game.

and don't get me STARTED on how absolutely stupid it is for so many pokemon to be as small as they are. constantly tripping on a 2 centimeter tall pokemon that i didn't see and initiating a battle gets really fucking old. from purely a game design standpoint, for one of the first games in the series to feature pokemon walking around in the overworld, youd THINK they'd somehow incorporate more accessibility for being able to SEE these fucking things, but no. the camera is far from the player (i play with the camera as close as possible, i know it's adjustable) and the grass that's fucking everywhere is taller than a lot of pokemon. also the shiny issue. how the pokemon from this gen have a lot of MINUTE differences in their shiny palette that make shiny hunting more of an eye-strain simulator than anything.

and i know that there are a lot of pokemon in these games meaning a lot of assets meaning a lot of space thats dedicated just to make creatures appear. i know all of that takes away from the space needed to make animations or appealing scenery or really just a substantial game. but remember when they said theyd limit the pokedex so that they could make sure the pokemon they DO include have higher quality models and animations? and remember how they never actually did any of that. (changing the rendering engine and the textures is NOT higher quality anything. and if you think it is, how come the textures on hills FUCKING SHIFT AS YOU WALK PAST THEM? THATS A LOWER QUALITY ENGINE!!! THAN WHATEVER THEY USED BEFORE!!!)

i'm just saying that i really wouldnt mind if they HUGELY limited the pokedex IF IT MEANT that we could get cutscenes with unique animations and effects. get rid of a few hundred pokemon if it means the overworld is decorated with more than a dozen repeating assets that make it difficult to tell where the hell i am without looking at the map. maybe i want to see big wind turbines in the background move at more than 2 frames per second! why is the largest landmark in the area moving at 2 frames per second?! bad!!! ugh.

i think all the issues i have with this game are reasonable grievances for a game that costs 60 fucking dollars. i dont want to hear a single "it's just a kids game!" it was 60 fucking dollars. +dlc +online subscription

theres lots more i can say but this is just what's really bothering me right now hahasdfk

[utilitycaster]

@rowzeoli replied to your post “@rowzeoli replied to your post “Do you think part...”:

There's a lot to tackle on this so I'll do my best to cover it all! So I totally get where you're coming from and to be fair yes there are some things in old articles that I don't agree with any more in deeming people having done things "first" which is part of the issue of not having a collective historical memory around actual play as it moves so quickly. Most of the issue isn't that readership is down it's that AI and venture capitalism is destroying journalism

​

Hey, sorry for taking a bit to respond; it's been a hectic week and I wanted to give it some thought and time.

I'll start off with the good: I really do, again, appreciate you engaging here, and on the strength of that alone I am going to at least give Rascal's free articles a good solid chance for a while; I have been, admittedly, tarring it with the brush of a lot of frustrations (see below) and I know it's relatively new and still finding its place and should get a bit more of my patience. I also should note that while your article did hit on a lot of the patterns that have turned me - and no small amount of others - off of a lot of AP/TTRPG journalism it is by no means the worst example. The things you credited Burrow's End for are, admittedly, more obscure single-episode events within a huge body of work. Or in other words: there are bylines in the space that make me go "oh this is going to be bad" and yours is not one of them.

With that said: I'm sorry, but Polygon's bias is not a matter of time crunch or lack of funding. There is no way that a time crunch or lack of funding would consistently, over years (this was already word on the street at latest when EXU Calamity came out almost 2 years ago) result in a message of "D20 can do no wrong, and Critical Role rarely does right." If it were throwing out harsh criticism or glowing praise for a wide variety of shows, sure, that seems like it could come from not having a lot of time...but this goes beyond coincidence. It's a reputation that long precedes your entry into the field. As some others in the replies have noted, I might have written the most about it on Tumblr, but it's at this point not an uncommon observation. This also isn't an issue for other publications in a similar "nerd stuff" space - there's plenty of articles on, say, Dicebreaker or Comicbook.com that I don't care for, either because I disagree with the opinion or I think the analysis isn't really worthwhile, but those tend to at least have a mix of positive and critical articles about most shows. When I said you could treat Polygon articles like Madlibs, I meant it. And so I think it's great that you are no longer chasing "groundbreaking", for example, is not a solid ground for an article, but this also is showing me that even relatively new journalists are, very early on, starting with this exact formula. In some ways, that's more damning.

I do also want to add that I'm again, sympathetic to the lack of resources and to coming into a field with passionate and nitpicky fans who have been here for years. Not knowing about a single Critical Role one-shot from 2018 is something that I'd have been much more lenient about if it weren't hitting those repetitive notes of "D20 is great/this thing is groundbreaking/look at the production values." But the other article I posted, also from Polygon but not written by you, is, to be honest, pretty inexcusable. I get there's a lot of lost institutional memory...but either being unaware of, or ignoring the fact that there are a huge number of long-running actual play podcasts that play longform campaigns? That's pretty much on par, in terms of whether your audience trusts you, of the New York Times international news desk not being able to locate Russia on a map (though obviously with far less serious real-world ramifications). (The fact that this was written by a prominent actual play scholar meanwhile is like, I don't know, Neil DeGrasse Tyson not knowing how gravity works, but that's a separate topic).

And again, I get these are your colleagues. I have the luxury of being able to run my mouth without putting my livelihood at stake, and that's not true for people within the industry. I do not expect you to say anything ill about them, nor would I judge any specific individual for getting published in Polygon since I get that people are pitching to a number of sites so that they can get paid! But when I say "Polygon's AP/TTRPG coverage is at needs-a-change-of-leadership levels of bad" I am not alone in this, and it's something that has probably been true for easily 3+ years if not longer. Because it's one of the more prominent publications in the space (ironically, due to Justin McElroy of TAZ being a founder, and the fact that its videogame division is quite good and has had some viral videos, it had enviable name recognition among AP fans that it's only squandered since) it really is at a point where hitting that same formula in any AP journalism - claiming everything is groundbreaking, putting an emphasis on high production values, D20 good and CR bad - makes fans go "oh, more of this bullshit." I don't want to say you can't talk about these things - I definitely do not want to say that you cannot criticize Critical Role - but that specific well is has been poisoned for a long time. If someone hits these points it feels, whether or not it is true, that they're trying to be provocative by going against popular fan opinion, but are simultaneously just saying the same thing we've seen a million times before.

I believe wholeheartedly that from your perspective the competition is AI - and I don't want AI articles either. On the other hand, in terms of what I think fans who are in my position are turning to, it's not AI articles (I'm certainly not). If I want analysis, I'm probably, at this point, going to social media; I am not the only person who writes longform meta or analysis for fun, and I'll seek others who do out. I'm not personally a video essay person, but plenty are, and that's out there too. I'm not going there for reporting on news (I think the Dnd Shorts OGL debacle made it clear that actual journalists are very necessary) but yeah, if I want criticism or analysis? I'm going there instead, especially since there often is that missing institutional memory. If I do want journalism, at this point, some of the bigger shows are getting writeups in less niche publications, particularly Critical Role and D20, as is news of more major tabletop games. It's infrequent and it doesn't highlight indie works, but it tends to be, if nothing else, lacking in major errors or obvious bias. If I want to hear from cast members, at least four of the shows I watch or listen to have regular talkback shows, and Dropout regularly talks to AP/TTRPG figures on Adventuring Academy, and a lot of those shows take viewer questions. Which, again, probably not heartening to hear the competition is even tighter, but I guess my point is I hope it's possible, even with very limited resources, to move away from the above "novelty and production values above all" pattern because even that would do a lot of needed work to rebuild reader trust - and I'm going to be checking out Rascal in the hopes that it can.

[merelymatt]

To get my upcoming audio drama I Need A Miracle off the page and into the airwaves, I decided against the indie production scramble where everyone donates their time, and against crowdfunding – and instead I basically sent the scripts to @wirelesstheatre and said "What'll it cost to make this happen?", then compared that number to my savings and said "Ok, let's do this".

(It was obviously more businesslike than that, but that was the basic maths of it on my side.)

Here's why I didn't do it those other ways this time:

Why not the indie production scramble?

Scraping it together on a shoestring. Buttonholing friends to perform, using whatever recording equipment I already have to hand, doing as much of the production as possible myself and begging favours for the parts I can't.

In some ways this would have been the easiest option. It doesn't rely on anyone else's approval, or involve putting any new infrastructure together.

But! For me, for I Need A Miracle specifically, this was the option of absolute last resort, for various reasons.

First and foremost, I already have one podcast (@merelyroleplayers) that I run on this basis. I already ask a lot of my friends to perform on that show for nothing, on the promise it'll be fun and I'll buy everyone a pint afterwards. I think you only get one of those, or you should only get one. If you run every project like this, especially if you're calling on the same people each time, it starts getting exploitative.

Second, I'm trying not to exploit myself either, by which I mean, I've put work into writing this series (admittedly on spec), I think it's worthwhile, and I'd like to see if I can make some money in return for that work. And if one person involved in a project is getting paid, everyone should be getting paid.

Why not crowdfund?

There are sub-options within this option: subscriptions and patronage-style funding (like Patreon, Ko-Fi or Gumroad) and up-front project-based funding (like Kickstarter, Indiegogo or Seed & Spark).

I actually have been weighing up the idea of a Patreon or Ko-Fi for a while, not for I Need A Miracle specifically, but for @foggyoutline in general. At the beginning it would effectively be a Merely Roleplayers subscription, because that's currently the only Foggy Outline show. But if enough people pay a bit a month for bonuses like uncut episodes, that could help fund new projects like I Need A Miracle, which could bring in more listeners and more patrons, whose contributions could help fund the next thing, and so on.

But the problem I would have with any kind of crowdfunding model is, right now I'm only pulling a small crowd! I'm an unknown writer, Foggy Outline is an unknown player at least in audio drama. And it seems like to succeed with a crowdfunding campaign, you really need your audience already built and poised to give you money.

If I Need A Miracle takes off and finds its audience, the kudos off that might make crowdfunding an option for the next thing. But I just wasn't confident it would succeed for this show, at least without a load of spend on a consultant and advertising (which then eats into the campaign proceeds).

So go on then, where is the money actually coming from

Me! Supplemented by my Foggy Outline business partners, who are also my Mum and Dad. But the majority of the production costs for I Need A Miracle are coming out of my savings.

This is one of the reasons I prioritised I Need A Miracle over other audio drama projects I'm working on: because it's simple enough that I felt confident I could cover the costs myself if I needed to. There's no dialogue (only monologues), so it's not a complex edit. Most of the episodes take place in one location, with little action beyond the character speaking, so it doesn't call for elaborate sound design. All the episodes are under 20 minutes. For a more complicated production, I would have had to bring in some funding from somewhere, or convinced a producer to take on the production costs themselves. This one was, to some extent, designed (by me) to be more affordable.

It's worth saying that getting started wasn't just a case of getting a quote from Wireless and agreeing to pay it. Producer Sarah Golding read the scripts and wouldn't have taken on the project if she didn't think it was worthwhile. So it's not pure pay-for-play.

So the plan now is:

Sell ads and subscriptions and see how much of the production cost I can get back that way after the fact (I expect not all of it, but that's ok, because...)

Also think of that money I've spent as an investment in both this and future projects – by spending money on an amazing production company that's making the show brilliant, I'm getting something that's hopefully going to make this whole process easier next time. Because next time I can point to Wireless' confidence in my writing, and the quality of I Need A Miracle, (and hopefully its success and acclaim and awards and all its fans), to get someone else to put their hand in their pocket instead, whether that's listeners, producers or sponsors.

[hiding-under-the-willow]

Love your whole thoughts on ego politics/relationships, do you have any thoughts about dr. Iplier at all? I'm of the opinion he doesn't like Dark very much though I couldn't say why

Ooooo okay I have to admit I haven't thought too hard about his relationship to the other egos before now, but I do have some thoughts on him just like. As a character. So, here's that and mayhaps some social stuff depending on what pops into my head as I type lmao

Okay so like. The one thing I have thought about with him is like. I was thinking about the differences between him and Henrik. And here's the thing, I think Henrik is a real doctor, like went to med school, has or at least at some point had a medical license. I do not think Dr. Iplier is a real doctor. I think that guy is an actor first and foremost, which is why he got hired to Markiplier TV, and then, as the egos are prone to do, they got into fights or got into trouble and everyone just kind of looked at his doctor bit and went 'yeah, this is the guy I should go to' and so he just was forced to learn how to be a doctor on the spot because everyone around him just kept getting fucking hurt and coming to him. I think he kept being like 'you guys know I'm not a real doctor right?' Meanwhile he was slowly learning how to be a real doctor just through practical experience. So now everyone is just like, 'Oh, Dr. Iplier? No, he's not a real doctor, that's just his gimmick' but then every time someone gets hurt they come to him anyways bc at this point he's so experienced he may as well have gone to med school. It confuses newbies so fucking much.

I think Henrik finds it so fucking annoying. He gets up on his high horse about his degree and his license and the law and blah blah blah meanwhile Dr. Iplier is like, 'yeah, that's cool and all, but can we please focus on the issue at hand.' Trying to deal with his stupid friends' even stupider injuries.

I think he's like a tired dad around the office when the others are doing stupid shit. Like following around Ed, Bim, and Wilford desperately trying to get Ed and Bim not to beat the shit out of eachother for the third time this month while Wilford half intentionally fans the flames of whatever fucking argument they're having that week.

I think the doctor stuff maybe weighs on him a little bit, especially when things get more serious, because obviously it is not what he came here to do or what he was hired to do, but somehow it has become a large part of his job. A side effect of this is that he gets like overly hyped anytime he is actually doing performance stuff for the network. Like you can tell when he's filming it's the highlight of his week.

Another side affect of his particular position in the office i think is that he's almost just as skilled in tech stuff as he is with repairing people, because he's probably also ended up regularly taking care of Bing and Google about as much as any of the people in the office. I feel like when Google and Bing are both busy and there's tech problems around the office people come to him and he'll fix it like quickly and flawlessly and the entire time he's grumbling under his breath about how this isn't a part of his fucking job description.

I do like your idea about him and Dark, though i definitely see some complexities there. Like. Okay, obviously Dark isn't really in Markiplier TV for the entertainment aspect. He's there because it keeps Wilford busy and happy and it funds his revenge plots. Also obviously, I think Dark's shit with Mark is like a blatant disruption of the actual work of Markiplier TV. Like. It not infrequently disrupts production, Dark regularly involves others around the studio in his plots, sometimes it puts others in danger. I think because Dr. Iplier is probably the one who often has to deal with the aftermath of Dark's failed revenge there's probably a bit of resentment that builds up from that, especially watching his friends around the office get hurt for some revenge they don't have a personal stake in. But I think there's also a certain amount of understanding/sympathy/pity/whatever that he feels for Dark. Bc. Y’know. Whether he likes it or not he's a doctor. And he's probably had to fix up Dark more than a few times. He's bound to notice the various things. Wrong. With Dark's body. He might not know the exact story behind Dark or his revenge plots, but he knows that something deeply terrible led to all this.

Anyways, this isn't anything revolutionary because I actually remember people shipping them back in the day, and while I wouldn't go that far, I definitely think him and The Host get along. Like I think once he started getting into the medical shit he finally started like paying attention to everyone around the office more and he kind of noticed the fact that the Host was just kind of dealing with all of the shit with his eyes or lack thereof on his own and one day was just kind of like, 'hey, dude, do you want help with that?' And so now he's the one who changes out the Host's bandages and helps him with upkeep and such. I think it was a probably a bit awkward at first, but they got to talking eventually and now the Host is like his one emotional confidant around the office. Like the Host was just happy to have some help with his shit so when he noticed Dr. Iplier's frustrations with his job, and with Dark, and with everyone else's reckless behavior, he decided to return the favor by encouraging him to open up a bit. Now they're like besties <3 I think they kind of bring out the best in eachother. Probably the two most frequent voices of reason around the office, though that isn't to say they don't both engage in the mischief every once in awhile

[eva-cfo]

Why do Small businesses fail?

Why do Small businesses fail? According to statistics, 50% of small businesses fail within 24 months of launch. According to research and report by the UWC, between 70% and 80% of small businesses fail with 5 years. This is a significant number of small business that fails. The consequences of this to the economy and unemployment are significant.  But what exactly closes doors for small businesses?   Lack of planning:  Most businesses are brought into existence for survival. The business owners simply register a company and hope everything will just be fine. There is no detailed plan on how the business is going to be run. There are no well defined short-term and long-term goals. As a result, there is no understanding of costs, responsibilities, markets, funding needs and other requirements of the business. Before long, the owners of the business run out of steam and find themselves back to the drawing board. Therefore, it is critical for business owners to have a clearly defined plan for their business. Also, a business data room that contains all critical information about the business is essential. This will come in handy when talking to investors or when seeking funding.   One-person show:  In small businesses, often the owner is the go-to person. They are the main source of contact for everything to do with the business. They deal with customers, suppliers, employees, production, admin, dealing shareholders and putting out fires in general. This leaves them with little time to run the important aspects of the business. They have no time allocated for growing the business and attending to strategic issues relating to the business. This is why it is important for business owners to identify, early on in the business, aspects of their businesses that they can hand over or delegate to their assistants or other people in the business. This will, in turn, free up their time to focus on what matters. According to the UWC report, personal initiative and goal setting are consistently related to business success. In other words, a business owner who is always reacting instead of proactively dealing with issues is more likely to fail than one who proactively deals with issues.   Failure to separate personal and business accounts:  You often hear people say, "This is my business. This is my money. Why can't I get the money out?" We have dealt with one such business before. The owner had a gambling problem. As a result, he spent over a million rands over two years in gambling. None of the winnings would come back to the business and no taxes would be paid over to the authorities for the business. While this business is still there, it consistently had cash flow problems and may not be around for a very long time. Using a company account as a personal account will no doubt cause a lot of confusion. Business owners will struggle to keep track of their costs and will find it difficult to measure their profitability. Secondly, they will create significant loans accounts in the business, which will be difficult to clear. As a general rule, business owners should decide on how much they need to survive on a monthly basis and pay themselves a salary from the business, obviously taking into account the cash flow and tax implications of doing so. Secondly, one should not owe the business unless they have a solid plan of paying or reducing this loan in the future. Lack of proper records and financial systems:  Many small businesses lack proper financial records and systems and technology. This could be related to the fear of the cost or fear of the unknown when it comes to technology.  But, many businesses that have adopted cloud accounting and other technologies have achieved efficiencies in a number of areas of their business. This is so because they no longer spend a lot of time on manual processes. Having data in real-time has also improved the way and quality of decision making in many small businesses. For many small businesses, technology should not be seen as a threat but as an ally. Small business should, therefore, be proactively looking for technology solutions before the lack of it throws them out of business.   Late payments by larger businesses:  According to Moneyweb, Kenya is considering making late payment of suppliers a criminal offence.  This shows you how big this problem is. In South Africa, many government departments are known for paying way too late. In the Western Cape, the City of Cape Town is in a legal battle with a water supplier they asked to build a desalination plant in the Water Front. The company built the plant with over R37 million of their money, but to date, only about R4 million has been paid. For any business, cash flow is anything. Small businesses also need to pay their suppliers who may in themselves also be small businesses. So, a call on large companies to pay their suppliers in time should become even louder than it is currently. Government departments should also look at how they can process supplier payments quicker. We also hope the new dawn that is sweeping through the country will also deal with officials who ask for kicks backs from these small businesses.   Passion is not expertise:  Passion is not a substitute for experience. In fact, experience is a bad teacher. Often one only learns from it after a mistake is already made. So, it is important for small business owners to stay ahead of their game by attending managerial, business management, finance and tax training. Do not wait until it is too late for you to learn. Have an interest in your numbers and finances as much as you do in your money and bank balance.   Poor management:  Ever heard people say, "People do not leave jobs, they leave managers?" When hiring managers, one needs to get someone who has a passion for developing and listening to people. When this is not the case, staff turnover becomes too high, so do the costs of hiring and training new staff members.   The Risks of Rapid Expansion in Business While growth is often the goal of any business, expanding too quickly can sometimes lead to failure. We've seen it happen in various industries—opening too many stores or scaling up too fast without a solid foundation can put a strain on cash flow, management, and overall operations. In business, it's crucial to grow at a pace that aligns with your resources and market demand. Slow and steady doesn't always sound exciting, but it often leads to sustainable success.   Are you looking for someone to help your business grow or survive?   Leave a message Subscribe now: Read the full article

[crazy-pages]

Okay but in all seriousness, I work at a Fortune 400 tech and manufacturing company. And the way our research division functions in practice is anarchist.

We don't use that term, obviously. And there's a fairly useless and unneeded top down authority hierarchy stapled onto it which causes problems more often than it helps, and holds onto a few powers which really should be handled on the anarchist side of things. But the way we operate is anarchist.

Projects are initiated mostly by someone just having an idea and workshopping it with other researchers until they can convince other people to get on board. Then once they have a full research team, with a team lead nominated by the other researchers, they submit a proposal to a panel of peer volunteers. That panel determines which projects get funded, and then funding is internally used within the project by general acclaim for a large expenditures and as needed by individuals for small ones.

Some people take on mentorship roles, again by general acclaim, which come with certain additional responsibilities and powers. These people will help newer researchers or researchers who prefer to operate on a "look just tell me what I'm needed for" wavelength find research projects to work on. When we need to hire outside talent to run projects at a senior level because it's not present for internal promotion, everybody even remotely involved sits in on their interviews, has one-on-one meetings with them, and passes judgment. It's a fantastic system and my only complaint about it is that some powers which should really be in those people's hands are instead reserved for those in the top down management structure, even while the responsibilities are left in the mentor's hands.

And it works well. I'm going to try to avoid doxing myself too hard here and not drop the company name, but suffice to say that this is possibly one of the longest running corporate research organizations in the world. It is consistently profitable (even though in recent years upper management has started to make bad decisions to cut some profitable sections based on a drive for endless growth that beats the market every quarter). And we are consistently the best in our field. I recently made a discovery for an industrial process which beats previously existing techniques by around 15 times the relevant figure of merit. And I found the basis for it on accident during the Friday afternoon experiment because my department doesn't make strict demands on my time and we're given the space to play around to try to improve processes without direct supervision or mandate.

It's an anarchist research collective! It's not perfectly anarchist. I've got a lot of gripes with the ways in which it's not anarchist. Especially when it comes to pay, I think we lose a lot of researchers whose fellows would happily give them pay raises to keep them around, while upper management refuses to acknowledge that inflation exists. And I wouldn't actually want it to be purely anarchist, there's definitely some places where I think keeping some higher direction is necessary. (I would prefer that higher direction be democratically representative rather than the way it currently is, but I am also fully aware how many dead end pet projects would still be lingering around choking up the budget if we didn't have people empowered to look at the bigger picture and say "okay no, this project isn't getting results worth the opportunity cost, we need to cut it".)

But the point is is that it exists. This incredibly anarchic structure, even if we don't call it that out loud, exists in a Fortune 400 company. It is successful, it is productive, and it has endured the test of time better than just about any other corporate research group I could name.

This stuff is more plausible than we think. There's no reason to grocery store couldn't operate the same way. There's no reason the people managing shift schedules and training and providing direction to the staff at a Target can't be put in that position by general acclaim rather than by promotions from on high. There's no reason that cashiers shouldn't sit in on the hiring interviews for those people when they're hired from the outside.

Because it already exists. Now don't get me wrong, I'm aware why it exists at the research level rather than at the cashier level. We have a a lot more leverage from how hard we are to replace, for one, and you see pretty immediate productivity losses when you try to straightjacket a research setting. But that doesn't stop a lot of other institutions from trying. My workplace is like this not because it is inevitable that people with higher education can find more permissive work structures. Easier maybe, but not inevitable. My workplace is like this because systems can be made and unmade by the people within them.

And I don't think a future where more people have that kind of say over their workplace is as impossible as we sometimes assume.

I saw a post the other day trying to dunk on someone by saying "You will never see anarchy during your lifetime."

At the risk of sounding trite, I think we all see anarchy during our lifetimes, in those (admittedly and increasingly rare) moments when we're free from coercion and drudgery and can enjoy freedom and comradeship. I would almost go as far as to say that seeing anarchy in our lifetimes and wanting to see more of it is what makes people become anarchists

[drarrily-we-row-along]

Day 63: Hair

After the war, after his eighth year at Hogwarts, after training to be an Auror, after quitting that soul-sucking job, and after accepting the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, Harry started to let his hair grow out. It wasn’t intentional at first, not really, he was just unbelievably busy teaching. But after a few months, his hair, which had always had a mind of its own, had grown long enough that the wavy-curls brushed his jaw.

He'd looked at himself in the mirror one morning and heard his Aunt Petunia's voice in his head, scolding him and telling him that only girls had long hair. He told that voice in his head to fuck right off and kept growing his hair out.

Not that it mattered what anyone else thought, but nearly everyone had said that his hair suited him. The exception, as it so often seemed to be, was Draco Malfoy. It wasn't as that the Potion's Professor had said outright that he didn't like Harry's hair, but his eyes were always slightly narrowed as though his hair was doing something offensive just by existing. Harry couldn’t understand it.

It all came to a head one afternoon, Harry was in the staff room grading papers and generally minding his own business, when Malfoy marched in and plopped down a pile of his own parchments on the table to mark, “Do you mind if I work here, too?” he asked.

"Not at all," Harry said, gesturing to the place Malfoy had already decided to occupy. He looked down and marked his place on the paper he was struggling through before looking up at Draco and pushing his hair out of his face.

Draco rolled his eyes and gave his head a little shake.

“What?” Harry asked.

“Nothing,” he replied, very clearly looking at Harry’s wild curls.

He sighed, “Out with it.” It had been a very long day, in Harry’s defense, and he just couldn't take another minute more.

“It’s nothing,” Draco insisted, even as his eyes flicked over to where Harry’s fingers were toying with the ends of a strand of hair.

“What have you got against my hair, Malfoy?”

(Read more below the cut)

“Oh, it’s back to Malfoy is it?” he asked, voice light and teasing. “I haven’t got anything against your hair,” he repeated.

“Come on," Harry urged, "You think because your hair is cut short and is always a perfect quiff that it’s better than mine?” Harry asked, and he knew it was childish but he couldn’t stand Draco thinking mean things about his hair for one more instant. “Do you think I look like a girl?”

“What?” Draco asked, sounding startled. “Of course I don’t think you look like a girl. What are you even saying? My father always had long hair, if you remember,” Harry flushed, knowing that was indeed the case. “And while my hair does, as you said, always look perfect,” he added with a smirk, “Your hair is very nice as well. Very healthy, the curls suit you.”

Harry felt his neck grow warm at the compliment, “Then why are you always glaring at it?”

“Because you’re always fussing with it. When you’re anxious or grading papers, it seems like it’s in your way and there are a million things you could do with it so it wouldn’t hassle you so.”

“Like what, cut it?”

“No, don’t be an idiot,” Draco said, rolling his eyes.

“Then what?” Harry muttered, petulantly pushing his hair out of his face once more.

“Like a plait, or a bun, a twist, a half bun even. There are also a myriad of products that could help you.”

Harry chewed on his lip, shoving his curls back behind his ear and thinking about what the other man was suggesting.

“For Merlin’s sake,” Draco muttered. "Here," he snapped, standing up and moving around the table near Harry.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

Draco's fingers slipped into his hair, "Trust me."

I do. Harry thought as Draco's fingers started weaving through his hair. It felt surprisingly nice, actually, and Harry found his eyes drifting shut.

"There," Draco said and Harry opened his eyes to see that he'd conjured a mirror and was holding it up for Harry to look into. He'd braided part of his hair back, clasping the hair that was always in his face and pulling it back into a barrette while the rest remained down around his shoulders.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"No problem," Draco replied carelessly as he sat back down to grade papers.

Harry went back to marking his own and they graded in silence for quite a while until Harry spoke up, "This is actually pretty nice."

"Hmm?" Draco hummed, scratching out something a student had written and writing a note in the margins.

"Having my hair back," Harry replied.

Draco looked up at him, giving him a little smile, "You have perfect hair for braids and buns, lots of volume."

"This would be good for teaching," Harry mused, "Especially on days like tomorrow when I have my older students practicing dueling."

"I could stop by in the morning before breakfast," Draco offered, "put it in a braid or something?"

"I wouldn't want to impose-"

"It's no imposition," Draco interrupted. "Honestly, I'll be glad not to watch you fiddling with it all day."

-----

And so began their tradition of Draco stopping by Harry's rooms before breakfast. Harry made coffee for both of them and they enjoyed the quiet together while Draco did something with Harry's hair.

How he would do Harry's hair each morning was always a mystery but every day when he showed him the finished result, something warm and pleased unfurled in Harry's chest.

After about a month of this Draco asked him one morning, "What's your hair care routine like?"

Harry shrugged, eye's closed as Draco's fingers worked through his curls, "shower, shampoo, conditioner," he replied. "Every other day usually."

"That's it?" he asked.

"What else is there?" Harry replied, too relaxed by the way Draco's fingers were moving through his hair to get worked up by his indignant tone.

"Potter, do you know what I did while you were training to be an Auror and all that nonsense?”

“Err? Your potions proficiencies?” Harry ventured.

“Well, yes, obviously,” he said as he tucked some hair up into what Harry suspected was becoming an elaborate bun at the base of his neck. “But I also developed potions for a beauty company. Especially potions for healthy hair.” Harry felt a hair pin sliding into place, “when Minerva offered me this position I almost didn’t take it. I had several offers from businesses who wanted to fund my research and allow me to build a brand for them.”

"Really?" Harry asked. "I didn't know that."

"Yes," he replied, "And you are literally killing me. We're going to start doing weekly conditioning masks for your curls. Spa night," he demanded. "Every Saturday."

"Alright," Harry agreed.

"I'll bring the hair care and skin care supplements."

Harry hummed, "Alright. What should I bring?"

"Dinner."

-----------

So they did. Spa nights on Saturdays and Draco every morning to do something different with his hair, and he loved every moment of it.

Harry had never been a morning person but for the first time in his life he found himself looking forward to being awake and out of bed each morning. He was happy and his hair seemed to be, too.

It seemed impossible, but Harry's hair had grown and grown and grown in the past five months since Draco had started all of this. His wavy curls reached halfway down his back by this point and Draco never seemed to tire of coming up with new ways to do his hair.

One warm Sunday afternoon in May, Harry invited Draco for a picnic and Draco had given him a pleased smile and said yes.

They found a quiet spot on a hill and ate lunch while they chatted and laughed as they watched students goofing around and generally just having fun.

"Merlin," Draco laughed as a group of second years rolled down the hill, sending up puffs of dandelions in the wind, "Were we ever that young."

"Honestly?" Harry asked, glancing over and tossing the curls that Draco had left loose over his shoulder, "I don't think so."

Draco frowned at him, "Even before you knew about Voldemort?" he asked.

Harry laughed and looked at the kids who were skipping rocks over the lake, "Especially then."

Draco moved to kneel behind him, taking down the part of Harry's hair that he'd put up earlier that morning, "Tell me about it?" he asked softly.

He hummed, "Not much to tell, really," he replied.

Draco's fingers started at the hair just above his right temple, "Tell me anyway?"

"Well this," he sighed as Draco started braiding, "Would never have been allowed. Long hair was for girls."

"Pfft," Draco huffed.

Harry smiled, "they," he swallowed, the words still somehow causing him bitter grief, "they didn't want me."

"What?"

"Just," he shrugged, "They had their own child and I was just a burden dumped on them. I wasn't allowed to be a child, I was there to do chores and not get in the way. Everything about me was wrong from my skin color, to my hair, to my eyesight, to my accidental magic."

"That's horrible."

"Yeah," he agreed, "But it was a long time ago. And I turned out alright."

"You did," Draco affirmed and Harry saw him pluck a flower from the grass beside them.

"Were you allowed to be a kid?" Harry asked.

"Sort of." Harry saw flowers zip past him and into Draco's outstretched hand. "There were things that were befitting of Malfoys and things that weren't. Anything that was appropriate for an heir of a noble pureblood house was fair game."

"Draco?"

"Mmhmm?" he hummed.

"It's been nice defying my childhood with you."

When Draco spoke he could hear the smile in his voice, "Likewise, Harry." He tied off the elaborate seven-strand braid he'd been working on and put it over Harry's shoulder to show him to flowers he'd woven in.

"Beautiful," Harry murmured, brushing his fingers over the array of flowers.

"Yes, you are," he replied.

Harry's gaze snapped up to find Draco watching him closely. "There's another way that I'd very much like to defy my upbringing with you," he ventured, clinging to every shred of Griffyndor bravery he'd ever possessed.

"Oh?" Draco asked with a little smile.

He nodded and reached out to cup Draco's cheek in his palm, "Can I kiss you?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Draco replied, leaning in and pressing his lips to Harry's as he buried his fingers in Harry's hair.

And if several groups of students caught sight of the two of them kissing on the hill, well, no one was surprised.

-----------

ahhhh! Sorry friends. This one got a bit out of control. I was just feeling a lot of feelings about Harry having long hair.

Side note, if anyone feels inspired draw Draco doing Harry's lovely flower braid (and I'm not saying it has to be @pato-roldnart but I'm obsessed with your art) I'd love that more than anything.

AHHHHH pato-roldnart did the thing! Look at this GORGEOUS art. I'm in love, please go look at it!

Anyway! I hope you guys enjoy it even though it's long! <3 Thanks for the prompt anon!

Day 62: Clothes | Day 64: Shower

[ltleflrt]

Hey Carrie! You talked a little the other day about writers' tendency to start a fic too early in the story, and how you see a lot of first scenes that could have been scrapped to improve the story. My question is if you have some tips to recognize while writing that first scene that you are starting too early in the story?

Hello friend!

That's a really good question, and I'll see if I can give an answer that makes sense. I am not a professional, and I'm not educated or trained in this stuff, it's just something that I recognize from years and years and years of voracious reading. And as with all writing advice, I encourage you to take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt and remember that no writing rule is a hard rule, only a guideline.

Also, my advice is going to be pertaining fanfiction, and specifically to AUs. Obviously a published book has an editor with a razor blade going through a manuscript for you, and the problems that bother me in fanfiction crop up in AUs more than Canonverse.

Oh, and every instance of "you" is general, not specific 😜

So I think the main problem that I see is that people are starting with an Info Dump. An Info Dump is not always a bad thing, sometimes it's completely necessary, but it is NOT where you want to start your story. If it absolutely has to be done, it's better to be somewhere in the middle or near the end. When it's something that your characters need to know.

That's an important bit: Do your characters need to know this?

And related to that: Does your audience need to know this for the story to make sense?

And very important follow up: If the answers to the above questions are yes, does the character/audience need to know this RIGHT NOW?

There's a lot of information about your story that YOU need to know. Heck, my notes files are full of sooooooo much stuff that I know about the characters and plot that never reaches the final product.

So when you're reading your first chapter (I say reading, not writing, because sometimes info dumping for your own benefit is good, and then you fix it before you share the story lol), ask yourself those two questions.

So for example:

In an AU where Dean is a tattoo artist, and it's his POV. The story starts with Dean driving to work, and when he gets there he's going to find out that the empty shop next door has been purchased and is going to be a yoga studio. He meets Castiel out front, up on a ladder trying to hang a hand painted sign, and some teens go running buy and knock into the ladder and Dean has to catch Castiel from falling. (Anyone who wants to adopt this idea is welcome to it btw, I would love to read this lol)

The mistake I often see in a first chapter like this is that as Dean is walking to work, there's a whole Info Dump about why he's a tattoo artist instead of a hunter. He'll be ambling along, thinking about his nice little business, and there's info about how his mom died in a fire, and his dad was a jerk, and Dean didn't go to college because he saved his money for Sammy's college fund, and Dean's only passion was art, and Bobby Singer introduced him to a tattoo shop owner who took Dean under his wing, etc.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: Why is Dean reflecting on his past? Does Castiel need to know this information in order to build a romance with Dean?

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Why does this information matter? If Dean's only reflecting on this because you want to make sure your audience knows where the timeline changed and this became an AU, then you're starting too early in your story. Dean doesn't need to know this, and honestly in a lot of cases the reader doesn't need to know this. This is information that should have been left in your notes file.

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: If this information is pertinent to the plot, like maybe there's some trauma there that Castiel might need to know about to develop their relationship, then you don't want to put it HERE, you want to put it in a conversation with Castiel LATER.

If I was writing this AU, I would just start with Dean sipping his coffee, he's kinda tired because reasons, he looks up to see an unusual commotion, and has to drop his coffee and sprint forward to catch Cas. If he's reflecting on anything in this scene, it's going to be whatever made him tired, or how good/bad the coffee is this morning. Since Cas is a new business owner, they can talk about the origins of Dean's business on their first date, because it'll be a relevant response to Castiel talking about the origins of his yoga studio.

And just in general, if Dean's origin story includes a lot of canon elements, like mom dying in a fire, dad being a deadbeat, Sammy being the adorable overachieving Stanford student.... try to hide that info for as long as you can so that the audience is actually curious about it by the time the info might pop up. It's the wild divergences that are more interesting earlier on.

Okay, and then I want to talk about my giant pet peeve for a starting chapter. It's a specific kind of info dump, that often includes the stuff from above, but then goes a step further.

My nemesis, The Daily Grind.

I haven't asked the authors, so I could be wrong about this, but I feel like most of the time when this type of chapter is included in a story it is because the author wants to show the reader that the character's life is boring and meaningless before the plot's inciting incident. I can absolutely see why that might be considered an important detail about the character, but keep in mind if it's boring and meaningless to the character, it's boring and meaningless to your audience.

You know how I said earlier that writing tips should never be hard and fast rules? Well this is in regards to that Show Don't Tell rule, and it's an example of TOO MUCH showing lol

It is possible to do a daily grind in an interesting way, but only if you include a Shake Up right away. And you have to look at the 3 questions a little bit differently.

So for example:

Castiel POV, and he works in an office. His daily routine is to always get up at the same time every day, he goes for his run, he grooms himself, he has his breakfast, he goes to work and talks to Kelly about how Jack's doing in kindergarten for a few minutes before going into his office. Adler comes in to be a prick, Castiel hates him for it, and then he does his reports, has lunch hiding in a corner of the lunch room so that his co-workers will leave him alone, he does more reporting, leaves an hour after his shift technically ends, goes home to a lonely apartment that maybe includes a pet who is the only being that shows him affection, has an unsatisfying dinner of leftover takeout while watching a mindless reality tv show, then he goes to bed.

Ugh.

BORING.

Which, yeah I get it, the point is that his life is boring. But now the story is too, and I've clicked the back button before I can see how exciting it's capable of getting.

Question 1, does your character need to know this?: No. He knows. Poor thing definitely already knows.

Question 2, does your audience need to know this?: Yes, but...

Question 3, does the character/audience need to know this NOW?: Yes, but new question for ya:

Optional Question 4, why does this need to be separate from your plot's inciting incident? The answer to this 4th question is usually that it doesn't.

Chapter 2 of this type of beginning usually shows the shake up of Castiel's day. My advice is to start with the shakeup, and sprinkle in the details of what you would have put into chapter 1 to show the contrast. It's far more interesting to learn how boring Castiel's day is by starting with the shake up.

So, same scenario:

Castiel's alarm doesn't go off for some reason, OH NO HIS ROUTINE IS SHAKEN UP! You're explaining his routine while also stressing him the fuck out because he has to rush, or skip something that he normally needs to do. Action! Interesting! He gets to work late, and has to miss his conversation with Kelly about Jack because she's telling him that Adler's already in his office being a prick because Castiel isn't there waiting for him like he always is. Oh shit, he's pissing off his asshole boss! Conflict! He's so flustered by the shakeups that he misses something on his report, and he gets a call from that new marketing guy Dean Winchester who asks if they can have a meeting about it when Castiel normally takes his lunch. BAM! MEET CUTE OPPORTUNITY! While Castiel is getting all flustered by how pretty Dean is while they talk about TPS reports, he can reflect on how this is both better and worse than hiding from his co-workers in the corner of the lunch room. The rest of the day after that meeting he's thinking about how weird this day is, he still goes home an hour late, he talks to his pet about his weird day when he gets home, and maybe he still eats leftover takeout, but he's not paying attention to the reality tv show because holy shit he wants to count Dean's freckles.

In this example, you're Telling the audience about Castiel's normal routine instead of Showing them. But since it's during a plot heavy chapter, it works!

Lemme see if I can TL:DR this...

As you're reading, ask yourself who needs to know this information, why do they need to know this information, and why is it important for this information to be included early instead of later?

If the answer to any of those questions boils down to "this is backstory" instead of "this kicks off the plot", then you've started too early.

I hope this helps? I'm always nervous about giving writing advice because so much of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm just feeling around in the dark. And I definitely do not ever want to hurt an author's feelings, because this hobby is so fucking hard, and we're all fragile. Even authors who welcome con-crit with open arms will have a weak point that they're unaware of that might get poked wrong and cause a crack, ya know?

I hope anyone who gets this far who might see their own works reflected in my examples understands that I have a lot of respect for their ability to put their work out into the world, and I want them to keep doing it. We're here to have fun, okay? Okay. I love y'all 💜

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

How would your ideal American state fix our current debt crisis? I know you believe government debt isn't inherently bad but I'd say our current debt seems quite excessive

good question.

you're right. i don't believe debt is inherently bad. in fact, i think it's basically meaningless. or, if anything, it's even good. if handled correctly anyway. so i don't really accept that there is a debt crisis.

the more important question is whether the debt is being put to good use. is it generative? productive? expansive? then it's fine. you have to spend money to make money. budget deficits (and the debt itself by extension) is just a representation of how much money the us government puts into the economy and doesn't tax out of the economy. government deficits are its contributions to the private sector's surpluses. now again, this doesn't mean we should just spend money carelessly. issuing more money than an economy can take advantage of or directing these funds to useless or harmful ends can have negative effects. but spending money in itself is not harmful.

also, the america government is the sovereign issuer of its own currency. it literally cannot run out of money. it cannot default on its debts, it can't go bankrupt. it can just issue more money to meet any debts it may have. and i know what you're thinking. what about greece defaulting? what about the weimar republic's hyperinflation? these can't be compared to america. again, america is the sovereign issuer of its own currency. greece was not. and the weimar republic didn't have hyperinflation just because of printing money. it had hyperinflation because of excessive debts in foreign currencies, both because of reparations but also because it was printing money to buy more foreign currency to pay those reparations. america has neither of these issues.

but here's the thing; money isn't created how you think it is. there are ways of creating money aside from literally printing dollar bills. banks make money all the time. money creation is, in fact, largely a private affair nowadays. and yet, there is no significant inflation. i mean, obviously there is some slightly elevated inflation right now, but that's not due to printing money. this money creation happens all the time and never has any noticeable effects on inflation. but there is an issue here. and that's the fact that it's in the hands of private institutions.

we need to stop worrying about debt. most developed countries regularly run deficits and have for decades or centuries. we can run deficits forever. nations aren't people or even households or businesses. the handful of cases of nations defaulting or falling into hyperinflation are because of circumstances beyond "budget deficits" or "debt-to-gdp ratios" and so on. in terms of debt-to-gdp the top ten has countries like greece and bhutan, but it also has japan and the united states and even the capitalists' wet dream singapore (btw it's funny that capitalists love singapore so much considering how much of their success is a result of state intervention).

money is fake. it is fiat. it is whatever we need it to be. and this is the beauty of it. it is a representation. a representation of the productivity and power and stability of the united states government. as long as america is chugging along, there is no risk of defaulting. and if it ever comes to that, we have bigger issues. no, what matter is the real economy of our nation. it's the people, the factories, the technologies, the raw materials, etc. don't underestimate the capacity of our nation. that's what this really means. when people talk about debt and how we're going to finance projects, it's just a lack of faith in our nation. unless you think our nation is suddenly going to collapse out of nowhere, there's nothing to fear.

again, the spending should be wise and put to good use. we should aim to redistribute wealth equitably. if all our spending is going to benefit already rich financiers while the rest of our poor and sick and elderly are dying, that's an issue. but that's a matter of policy and political will. but if the money we are spending is going to building new roads, new factories, new homes, better education, healthcare, training, public transport, etc, then it will benefit us in the long run and our civilization will become more prosperous. what does debt matter at that point? why do anything if we can't even make our lives better? we're going to let some numbers on some ledger keep us from living? we need to start being optimistic and ambitious. if ancients could afford grain doles and build pyramids and grand cathedrals with their abundance, why the hell can't we do it? why can't we do more?

our constraint isn't money. we're not on the gold standard anymore (thank god). our only constraint is real resources. you ask what i would do? let's say i nationalize the fed and issue $1 trillion new currency notes. this money will be leant through the new national banking system to farmers and manufacturers and entrepreneurs and infrastructure projects. this will have the effects of creating more jobs, producing more real wealth -- more than was loaned -- and all the new wages and business income will result in even more taxes which can be even further invested. then combine this with a jobs guarantee program, regulating predatory/exploitative business practices, instituting new taxes, and moderate protective and revenue-raising tariffs.

again, our only constraint is resources. if we have resources that aren't being utilized by the private sector (for whatever reason.) then that means the government can and should step in to pick up the slack. and as long as there are resources for us to utilize spending won't by itself cause inflation. in fact, in certain situations it can even be deflationary. if we aren't utilizing all of our productive capacity it means, by definition, that we are living below our collective means. it means that there are resources out there that we could be taking advantage of. a great example of this is employment. let the private sector employ as many as it can. but why just have a bunch of unemployed people laying around? why not give them jobs to do something useful. however small it might be, it's better than nothing. and then this itself will have all kinds of cumulative effects (more money circulating, more consumption, more tax revenue, happier and healthier and more productive population, less spending on welfare, etc).

but again i want to reiterate that i wouldn't do all this with the aim of "eliminating debt". my goal isn't eliminating debt. my goal is revitalizing our nation and creating prosperity. we need to stop placing needless limits on ourselves and start realizing our potential. our people can do great things and we will. we will free ourselves of these old, outdated, limited ways of thinking.

[darfeld]

Ok so... I'm not saying the Jedi were evil slavers, but... No, those weren't the only choice they had, and we don't see them ever try to find a better way out of being drafted in a war they shouldn't have lead. For one thing, they did gave the clones to the Republic. Even if they led them in battle, they were the army of the Republic. The Jedi never had a say in the choice to make more clones or not, and the chanceler was the ultime authority over the clones. (like, obviously, but also as chanceler Sheev Palpatine) The Jedi were glorified middle manager in this.

Second, they didn't try to stop the war at any point. They tried to end it, by winning, which is different. You'll say they couldn't because they were busy doing the war, I'll say this is exactly why they should not have let themselves be drafted in it. The Jedi are good at fighting, sure but at the start of the war they have no idea how to actually fight a war. The thing they do know is allegedly to do diplomacy. They might have actually saved more life as diplomates. There were a lot of worlds unhappy with the Republic at that point but not necessarily to the point of joining force with count Dooku. They could have cut the separatist army funding, maybe stop the battledroids production, I don't know... They are supposed to be good at this, and they were still far more numerous than the Sith. Any effort to reduce the scale of the war meant less Clone dead. It also means less reasons for Palpatine to accumulate executive powers.

They could have fought for the clones rights. Not being forced to be generals means they would have had time for that too. Again, they are supposed to be better at diplomacy than war.

They could have given separatist worlds what they wanted : Independence from the Republic. Maybe it would be a hard sell for the republic but, again, super diplomates, and also denying those world there independence is just colonialism. This means still fewer worlds having reasons to fight the Republic, so less dead clones. Those world may have been persuaded to join the Republic again after the crisis, or not, either way it's better for the Republic if it wanted to stay a Republic. And they probably could do all of that, even with their small numbers, if they weren't occupied at making war. And that doesn't mean they would never have had to work with clones or take part to battle occasionally. Leading the clone army was certainly not their only choice. Also again, the Jedi are kinda shit at war. They often trick the opposing army without considering the ramifications of their actions (like say... fake surrender ?) and they have to use those tricks because A) they are not good enough to not need to and B) They can't allow themselves to actually surrender occasionally. All this means more clone death in the end. So while I don't doubt they never intended to be shitty to the clones and felt they had to take responsibility for them (which... is debatable) taking their lead was not the only or even the best option for the clones and for the republic in the long run.

Note: The meta below wasn't written by me, it was sent to me as an Ask by an anonymous user. It was so good that sharing it without adding some images I had lying around and extra formatting (boldening/italics) to it would've been criminal, so that's my only contributions. Thank you anon, and enjoy the read folks :)

What more could the Jedi have done?

I think a lot of the discourse about the "Jedi being slavers" comes from a deliberately uncharitable and bad faith reading of them.

I agree with you that TCW raises these questions and chooses not to go through with addressing them because it is ultimately a kids show that isn't trying to tell a story about the clones' situation but about [the Clone War itself].

But whenever I see people choose to go into these deeper ethical debates, they almost always assign an unfairly disproportionate amount of blame onto the Jedi who are, for the most part, in the same boat as the clones. Even the clones themselves seem to understand the nuance of the situation and most are grateful to the Jedi for coming in and leading them.

Although, yes, the clones do have it much, much worse, the Jedi are still there, fighting, protecting and dying right alongside them.

The Jedi are blamed for being part of the Republic in spite of all its issues, far more than the Senate is for being the Republic, even though the Senate is the one with all the power.

I wonder what it is people wanted the Jedi to even do for the clones...

OPTION 1: Leave the Republic?

And let the Separatists (whose originally legitimate grievances have been hijacked by the Sith) freely commit mass atrocities and enslave other planets with their humongous droid army?

OPTION 2: Overthrow the Republic?

And then what?

Take control of the Senate and become literal dictators and the very things they sought to destroy?

And during this whole takeover process, does the Separatist army just magically pause committing its mass atrocities?

So in the middle of a galactic war, the Jedi, with their limited numbers and resources, decide to start another one against the Republic to free the clones and ignore all the other planets getting destroyed and enslaved, and then...? [Also] the Republic citizens were largely unwilling to fight their own battles and preferred to leave all the fighting to the Jedi and the clones. So, now:

Do [the Jedi] force their new "Republic" to make its own army to fight the Separatists? Do they enforce a draft on the "natborns"?

All of this ⬆️ is premised on the Jedi even being willing to throw away their democratic values, and on the clones even WANTING THEM TO DO SO. Yes the clones are in a terrible situation, but the harsh truth is that, canonically, they do share the same values as the Jedi.

People can argue that they're brainwashed into this, and I would even agree. But that doesn't make it any less true that these are still their values. Most of them want to fight for the Republic.

They should have the choice available to pursue another path if they wanted, but the show - and thus the clones and the Jedi - barely have the time to consider all these issues because they are in the middle of a war.

In the show, [the clones] are the conveniently available highly-trained army that the Republic was going to use with or without the Jedi because it was all a trap set by a Sith Lord.

The Jedi, who were supposed to be some hybrid of social workers, peace-keepers and diplomats, were drafted into a war they did not want, and did not fight [the draft] because they had made an oath to the Republic, and because the alternative was letting billions get killed.

They were between a rock and a hard place and chose to prioritize trying to end the immediate war first before fighting for the rights of the clone army (which - again - is not even their job! Padme, Mon Mothma and Bail and all the other politicians are RIGHT THERE!)

The Jedi were a minority religious order whose own situation in the Republic was precarious, as evidenced by the fact that the citizens were willing to cheerlead their genocide just a couple of years in and gleefully bought into anti-Jedi propaganda en masse.

A more charitable reading of the Jedi would take all this ⬆️ context into account before declaring them slavers/slavery-enablers and surmise that... no, they did not agree with how the Republic was treating the clone army.

They were most likely hoping the Senate would enact a democratic solution to this after the war, so they tried to end the war as quickly as they could.

And no, they didn't "selfishly decide to overthrow/kill Palps just because they found out the Chancellor was their religious enemy when they were unwilling to do so for the clones."

It was because they realised that - all this time - they had all been under the control of a Sith Lord who had orchestrated a sham war to destroy them and take power for himself.

[libertarian-druid-ny-separatist]

So, I plan on running for president in 10 years, and I'm going to be starting that campaign early and on Tumblr. But, I feel it's important to make my policy goals clear along with the motivation behind them. So let's get started.

Ending the war on drugs. This is big because the war on drugs has failed massively and only made drugs more dangerous. I plan to legalize the growth of poppies, coca, magic mushrooms, and cannabis nationwide and prepare a licensing program to distribute them. This will not include importation. All recreational drugs will need to be checked for purity and general safety within reason. Production will also require a license and be limited to a certain extent. At the same time, the destigmatization of drug use will make it easier for people to seek treatment and quit.

Taking responsibility for Liberia. They're a state that US created for freed slaves. And we've abandoned them. In all honesty, I'm tempted to say we should offer them statehood, but they deserve to be an independent nation if they so desire. We should help them set up an electrical grid and nation building logistical programs if the government of Liberia is willing to accept aid. Funding for this program could come from both the sales tax on recreational drugs and the savings from jails that no longer need to jail drug users or dealers.

Easing immigration requirements. We used to have a neat system set up with Mexico called "circular flow" where we got workers from Mexico that were paid in the US by US law and were legally allowed to work here and live in Mexico. Since banning that practice, we've increased illegal immigration. I want to bring back circular flow while also easing immigration requirements for those that want to live here. Hopefully streamlining the process.

Demilitarizing the police. This is one that I imagine is pretty well accepted. Our police forces in the US are militarized to all hell. Fuck's sake, Burlington, Vermont had a fucking apc. One of the most peaceful places in the nation, and they got a damn apc. This demilitarization will leave it so that only SWAT units get anything that's ex military. With drugs legalized, there won't be nearly as much crime to respond to and even less for violent crimes.

Nationally pass a right to repair bill. This one should be obvious, but when you buy something you own it. You should be allowed to fix it if it breaks.

Offer statehood to all US territories if they want it. They're US territories. If they pay taxes to the US government then they should be a state. Obviously they don't right now, but if they're willing to then we should incorporate them into the union. This will not be forced on them and will not involve any sort of invasion. Just accepting them as member of the union and getting them set up in Federal congress.

Increase US production by giving tax cuts to certain manufacturers that produce in the US. Including cars, steel, computer parts, oil, arms, and more.

Cut back on gun control laws. They don't work worth shit, I can go a town over from where I am now and buy an uzi for now $700. That's cheaper than civilian legal guns for a legitimate submachine gun. Whereas Vermont had no arms dealers that I was aware of and a peaceful society. NY, which has fucking intense gun control, has illegal guns out the ass and a fuckload of murders vs a max of 6 per year. That 6, happened once in the last hundred years. An armed society is a polite society.

Negotiate with terrorists. The biggest failure of the war on terror was the fact that we refused to negotiate peace with them. We kept making more as a result of that policy and we ended up killing tons of innocents. "Only a fool learns from his own mistakes, the wise man learns from the mistakes of others." Bismark was right there because holy fuck has America made some serious mistakes.

Attempt to create more peace in the world without creating more violence. The US military is a logistics machine that could be used to help these developing nations and frankly, should be used to help developing nations that want us to help. No UN style of "help" that just ends in people getting raped. We help where we're wanted only. If your nation doesn't want us there then we won't go there. And yeah, that includes Liberia, if we're not wanted there then we won't go.

Those are my top ten policies, but not my only ten. I want to put some more money into NASA and be more open with the American people. I want to outlaw lobbying. And if we have already found aliens then I want to tell the American people because there's a good chance they've got stuff to teach us. I also want to change the legal definition of rape to include forced to penetrate, essentially making it any forced sexual contact. Shit, if there was an ethical way to legalize sex work then I'd do it, but pimps and madames make that damn near impossible. Frankly, as long as you're not hurting anyone, you should be allowed to do what you want. So independent prostitution would be fine, if a person wants to sell their body for sex then they should be allowed to. Maybe some sort of licensing program to ensure they're sti free and only acting of their own accord. I want to expand the nuclear power program and start a kinetic bombardment weapons program. I want to fund research into nuclear fusion for power purposes. And despite being a libertarian, I want to incorporate some syndicalist policies by giving labor unions by converting the DEA into the Labor Law enforcement agency to ensure ethical treatment of workers. There is so much that I want to do for our nation and for other nations that we owe help to.

My name is John. And I want to be your president if you're an American citizen. I want to grow our gdp while lowering taxes for the average American citizen and create jobs by lowering them for businesses that produce in America.

My slogan is "Prosperity through peace." But honestly considering making it "Keeping the feds out of our damn business". If the Libertarian party wasn't so far right then I'd try to run under them, but I'm closer to the center so I'd either need to found my own party or find one that likes me enough. And with the changes going on in the libertarian party, by the year I can actually run, they might like me.

[acti-veg]

Apart from the obvious debates about the military and its uses... I find it baffling that they do not provide vegan food, especially as I am conscripted (all Swiss males between 18 - 25) into the Swiss military and only have 3 choices: Military (300 days if serving continuously, otherwise 245), Civil service (takes 1.5 times as long as the military) or you are not serving at all and have to pay 3% of your income or atleast 400 CHF / 435.31 US$ per year.

BUT! If you tell the military on your recrution day(s) that you are vegan, they will automatically kick you out of the military + civil service and force you to pay the 3%. So obviously, people that aren't wealthy (like a lot of 18 - 25 yr olds) would rather go vegetarian (which surprisingly the military provides for), basically forcing young people to ignore their morals. Additionally, if you are disabled you will get kicked out and you'll have to pay the 3% of your income / 400 CHF anyways to no fault of your own.

I think that if the military is using conscription, it should have to provide for all of the needs of its conscripts, especially considering that there are many reasons that people won't be able to consume animal products (ethics, allergies, faith etc).

While I personally disagree with what the military is doing, I also don't understand why the military is relying on animal products this much in the first place, because 1) animal products are difficult to store and keep safe 2) need preparation to be safe and 3) are much more difficult/resource expensive to obtain in the (admittedly very, very small possibility) case of war. For point 3) we even have direct evidence from WW2 when the Swiss government tried to convert land used for cattle into farming land for vegetables in order to achieve more autarky in these times.

All in all I am disappointed and hope to be able to speak to a military official to try and find a solution for myself and hopefully future conscripts.

What do you think of this debate, which shouldn't be one in the first place?

I think that the focus has to be on opposing conscription as the utterly immoral practice that it is, rather than making it more bearable for any particular group. No one should be forced to serve or fund a military they don’t agree with, and I think that advocating for changes within the structure is playing into the idea that we can somehow make this horrific practice acceptable.

It would of course be a good thing for the army to cater for vegans, but vegans shouldn’t be serving in the first place, and nor should anyone else who doesn’t want to, which is the real issue with this. I think that calling for anything less than abolition of conscription would be a mistake, and that reform and inclusion really shouldn’t be the goal here.

Take all this with a pinch of salt though, coming from someone who will never be effected by this. It is easy for me to say a blanket no to any conscription because it will never happen to me, and if you feel like joining campaigns for better inclusion in the military is a good use of your time and energy then that is what you should do, and I wish you every success with it.

[maccreadysimp]

breaking down this anti-ian article bc it bothers me ( from the child of a bipolar mother and a male teen with same sex attraction ) while also providing valid reasons ian sucks ( from someone who likes ian )

ive had this drafted for a while so i dont think i cover anything from season 11

tw for i^cest and r^pe

he was with a married man

in this point it points out that he was with kash and he continued his relationship with kash even after linda put cameras in the store

“Ian didn't seem to care about how wrong his affair with Kash was or how much it could hurt Kash's wife Linda, whom he saw at the store regularly. “

that is a quote from that part.

ian gallagher was fifteen in season one, kash was an older man who bought him gifts and payed attention to ian ,, that was not on ian , none of that was ian fault because he was a child

ian wasnt open with lip

“ Ian didn't tell Lip about his preferences and forced Lip to figure it out on his own. Lip was instantly accepting of his brother's truth and even offered to help him figure out any confusion he might be harboring, so it's really strange that Ian wasn't just upfront with his closest confidant from the start.”

no , lip wasnt forced to figure it out on his own and he also wasn’t instantly accepting.

in this point it mentions that ‘they’re extremely close ( bestfriends and brothers ) so its strange ian didnt tell him’

like point 1 , ian is a fifteen year old boy, growing up on the southside , and thoughout the show it has mentioned multiple times that the southside isnt that accepting

back to lip -- lip wasnt accepting, sure he was fine but ‘helping your younger brother figure it out’ by having a (female) classmate give him a blowjob isnt helping

he secretly dated his best friends brother

“Most friends have an unspoken rule about not dating each other's siblings, but Ian broke this rule by secretly entering into a relationship with Mandy's closeted brother Mickey.”

the only thing i have to say about this is , he was still with kash and mickey was a boy in his age group who was gay , growing up in the southside ian probably thought he was the token gay so of course hes going to chase after mickey

he stood by as kash attacked mickey

“Ian didn't do anything to stop Kash from shooting his new lover, and didn't even tell the police about his boss' over-the-top display of jealous action so proper justice could be served.”

okay. because two men he had fallen for had gotten into a fight, there was a gun involved and he panicked, in the end after mickey got shot he went to him

now to address the quote, he didnt say anything to the police because he probably knew that that would bring shame onto kash and his family, along with mickey and his family who are very homophobic

oh yeah and it was like 2011 and cops suck and THEY LIVE ON THE SOUTHSIDE

he and lip tried framing terry milkovich

oh the homophobic and racist dad of his boyfriend and bestfriend who tried to kill him and r*ped his daughter ?

yeah , shit man , that was real bad they shouldn’t have done that /s

he dated jimmy-steves married father

“Ian didn't bother telling Jimmy the truth about his father and didn't end his relationship with Lloyd upon finding out that he had a secret wife and family, either.”

at this point ian is probably sixteen but that doesnt matter bc i wont even address that

he met him at a club and then used his relationship with ned to make mickey jealous which was one of the reasons he kept seeing him, he didnt tell jimmy-steve about the relationship or his father bc he shouldnt find out from him he should find out from his father , again like kash, ned was an older man who payed attention to ian and ned later did develop feelings feelings for ian

he stole lips identity to enlist in the army

he enlisted because he didnt know what to do with himself, its implied/stated that the army timeline was the start of his bipolar

“While impersonating Lip, Ian had tried to steal a helicopter and then proceeded to go AWOL.”

this is because of the bipolar he suffers from, it is referenced later in the series after he gets back and hes manic

ian refused to accept being bipolar

of course he didnt accept it, it is made very clear that his family thinks lowly of monica so of course if hes the lucky duck to get what his siblings demonize her for, of course he’ll not want to be it

“He refused to take medications that could alter his personality or mood.”

okay. this is why im making this whole post, this goes along with part 15 ( or so idk ) ,,

my mother , my dear mother, who is bipolar and doesnt take her meds because they are mood altering , my mom doesnt take med because she told me once that they make her feel like shit, she told me that a little after i was born she started taking them but realized she felt nothing, she felt nothing for my dad or for i ( making her numb )

she told me anti deppresents dont help either because when shes on them and manic it pushes her past productive and into angry

my dad told me that when my mom was on bi polar medication she would seem angry most of the time

he wasnt faitful to mickey

“Ian's bipolar disorder made him very reckless and impulsive and led him to be unfaithful.”

lets break that down.

ians. bipolar. disorder.

this plot point i actually didnt like, mainly bc ian never addresses it so ill give the article a point. but then i take away 2 because they have more of a problem with his bipolar messing with him rather than the fact he never apologized and they never worked it out

ian stole yevgeny

before i start quoting i should mention because his boyfriend, who has supported and helped him is suddenly telling him he needs help, he was helping raise yev so he’ll see yev as his own

“Ian failed to recognize just how crazy he was acting...”

cuting you off right there , he was in a bipolar state, he wasnt ‘crazy’ and isnt ‘crazy’

he cant even keep count of his number of partners

just slutshaming i see

he helped throw frank off a bridge

“His relationship with Frank was understandably never the same after that, as Frank struggled to get over this act of betrayal and cruelty.”

‘was never the same after that’ frank never liked ian, ian was probably his least favorite and that point is very apparent

also , it wasnt just ian , his siblings and his boyfriend caleb

he left a healthy relationship to be with mickey

he fell in love with mickey at 15 , mickey was a comfort and always someone to fall back on, when mickey was taken away and no longer in the picture his heart still obviously was with mickey and when mickey came back he didnt know what to do

he told mickey he had a boyfriend but because mickey has been such a constant in his life he finally has back of course he couldnt resist

he liked trevor, i could tell he did but trevor wasnt the one he watched get r^ped by a russian prostitute, he wasnt the one ian was secretly dating bc it would be a death wish other wise, he wasnt the one there when ian was manic or depressive ( at the start )

he tried blackmailing an old client for money

“Instead of raising the money in an honest manner, Ian chose to visit an old client from his time working at the Fairy Tail and blackmail him into funding the shelter.”

because he felt indebted to trevor and wanted to make it up to him, it would have taken longer to do it in ‘an honest manner’ when his sister would have gotten it instead, he knew how much gay youths like he once was needed a safe place

“He grew up wanting to be nothing like his father, but this whole money-making scheme was straight out of the Frank playbook”

because thats all he knows, he grew up with that ‘playbook’ so of course hes going to take a page out of it, he is nothing like frank , franks money making schemes are selfish and for his own greed while ian wanted the money to help build a safe space for lgbt youth

he let fame inflate his ego

of course he did, hes a southside kid who was destined to fail

also it is very apparent that during the gay jesus era he went off his medication which didnt help

“Before long, he just completely forgot about his ex and focused solely on being a deity”

as much as yes, he did let it mess with his head, he was trying to still help lgbt youth and was going against anti gay churchs , in the end it didnt work out for him because he was off his meds and went over board

he stopped taking his meds

see previous point and ‘ian refused to accept being bipolar’

he actually wanted to stay in prison

because he was doing good in there

ian was helping others and was spreading awareness about lgbt with in the prison , and as him and jail scenes go , we can see people were listening to him and he was trying to make it safe sane and consensual

he let down his army of followers

“Ian admitted that most of his actions were completely irrational and the mere results of his bipolar disorder.”

he didnt want to, we can see this, because he knew he would let down everyone, his family were the only ones to ever ground him and they knew it would be the best option for his own mental health

during the gallavich wedding we can see that a lot of his supporters still have his back because they must know how hard it was for him to put all of that success on something he can’t control

he constantly wasted his potential

this is actually the only point in this article i actually agree with , so only 1/20 i agree with

his relationship with mickey wasn’t actually great

“Mickey spent the first several years of their relationship denying his feelings for Ian.”

he was raised by a homophobic and racist father who he knew would react the way he did when terry had caught the two that one day

“Even after he finally embraced his true self, Ian's bipolar disorder kept them from becoming truly happy together.”

yes but mickey was there for him the entire time and helped him through it, he told him he loved him which was really big for him and did his best to care for him

“They couldn't seem to remain faithful to each other for more than a few weeks.”

back to the point about ians bipolar but for mickey he wanted monogamy , now that scene in s11 may say otherwise but it is very clear that he wants a monogamous relationship with ian and ian ( after getting help ) wants one too, and in the later seasons they are monogamous

“When Mickey asked Ian to run away to Mexico with him, Ian refused.”

he wanted to, it’s obvious, but ian has his family and didnt want to abandon them again, i think part of him knew he would see mickey again because they always find eachother, he gave mickey all of his money and wanted mickey to have a good life

“Their relationship was simply never healthy.”

no it wasnt, but thats why the ship is great in its own way, the gay closet kid raised by a homophobic man is obviously going to have a lot of baggage , and ian who is bipolar and struggling with himself will also have a lot of baggage , but in the end they love eachother and that really shows in season five and season seven specifically

that is all lol ,,, this is long sorry

now, i am not a ian apologist , i love ian but hes a dumbass sometimes

actual valid reasons ian sucks

genuinely believes frank is worse than terry

yes frank was definitely abusive but terry is definitely worse ,,

mentally/physically/sexually abusive , the whole nine yards

terry hired a prostitute to r^pe his son , threatened to kill him and ian on multiple occasions , r^ped his daughter who ended up pregnant and is actively racist

frank on the other hand will make gay jokes but in the end doesnt give enough of a shit , he has attacked his children on multiple occasions but not to the brutality that terry has ( this isnt me excusing it )

sorry ian , terry is worse

never apologized

he never apologized for all the shit he put mickey and his family through, never apologized to mickey for cheating on him , never apologized for all the manic and depressive episodes mickey endured with him

never apologized for walking away when he couldn’t handle it, in hall of shame mickey actually acknowledges this saying ‘its youre whole MO’

debbies sexuality

he has constantly made statements saying debbie isnt gay and that bothers me because , why does it care ? as a gay man and as a gay man who soent time with a lot of lgbt youth wouldnt he support his sister even if shes just ‘experimenting’?

in the recent season he doesnt seem to care and doesn’t say anything but it still bothers me

mickey only getting like 80% of his heart

okay look , i get what ian means when he says this , everyones hes been with has made him who he is but fucking hell dude ,, shut up , thats your husband , thats the love of your life you shouldnt be saying shit like that , especially to him

and then this man had the audacity to say mickey probably feels the same about past flings when he knows that ian is the only one hes probably ever been with/serious about

obviously there is probably more but those are the main ones that come to mind

—

before anyone brings up the trans or bi thing im going to explain my thought process for him

like ive probably mentioned multiple times he grew up southside and obviously only ever grew up with lgb and not t ,, trevor did inform him a lot and ian became supre accepting of everyone,, sexual preference isnt transphobic but i do think he approached the matter badly

now the bi thing , legit all i think is that he doesnt hate bisexual people its just that the man he really liked slept with a woman and never expressed any heterosexual attraction so it probably just suprised him and pissed him off because caleb did cheat on ian

—

if you read this far HOLY SHIT THANKS LOL ,, im not adding things that i think are pro about ian this was just me breaking down that article and giving my two cents :)

feel free to message me and talk to me or send me articles like this about any other character/relationship and i will totally break that one down too lol

thanks for letting me rant

[queen-mabs-revenge]

What is this anti AO3 discourse? I don't often go on the internet and every time I peak out from under my rock isfg A Thing has happend and I don't know what The Thing is!!!!

haha i envy you actually 😭

no but it’s just That Time Of Year Again where because AO3, the website that is ranked globally in the top 2000 websites out of an active ~1.85B sites, and maintains server stability and growing site operability 100% through user funding and collaborative generous volunteer time, while defending the legal right for fanworks to exist, is doing it bi-annual donations drive.

there's the usual 'ao3 exceeded their goal why can't they donate the rest to charity' discourse floating around which others have written about much more clearly and concisely than i can, but for me, this particular round of reaction has been pretty next-level vitriolic in that i've had to unfollow several people in the past day for reblogging posts that have explicitly said that people donating to ao3 during a global pandemic instead of to any number of donation requests crossing their dash should kill themselves. the less vitriolic version of this being that people who do so are 'going to hell', but the call for suicide in giant, bold, headline letters was the one that was the most frequent and obviously visible on my dash.

generally i can let most criticism of ao3 slide by as a difference of opinion - some people do have genuine good-faith criticism of wanting more features such as blocking and muting added to the site to protect users from harassment. and yeah. absolutely. 100% get that. also 100% understand how things like that, which seem simple, have incredible back-end implications that take a huge amount of time to code for and ensure stability for, especially with the collaborative nature of the website. i also think that ao3 should be more communicative about the process of developing these features to be as transparent with the process as they are with their finances.

even the more bad-faith criticisms i can usually just shrug at, maybe get a flicker of passing disbelief and annoyance, and scroll on.

but i'm sorry this co-option of genuine oppression and suffering that's been systematically concentrated under the capitalist handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, while calling for individual guilt over that system and goading people to self-harm for donating to ao3 instead of every donation drive?

that kind of takes this out of the bad-faith category and into the explicitly malicious territory for me.

as i've said in other reblogs and tags on the subject, the fact that these people aren't telling people to kill themselves for using their spare money to keep up their netflix, spotify, amazon, hulu, disney+, etc. subscriptions, instead of donating to every personal post on their dash – companies which literally cause active global harm and oppression, abuse their workers and spearhead anti-worker legislation and campaigns, bend to incorporate imperialist and anti-worker messages into their media products, and contribute to capitalist actual neo-colonialization.......kind of puts this whole social justice framework of these calls for people to self-harm and feel immense personal guilt for the crusade-determined purity of their individual choices, into relief as the complete empty garbage that it is.

this isn't about social justice. it's about co-opting and predating on feelings of pain, anxiety, and empathy that people have due to rising systematic inequality, into the guilt-mongering, reactionary, conservative purity culture crusade against a site that was founded on being explicitly against commercialization, monetization, and corporate determinism over a creative resource, and the policies that keep it that way.

to see the propaganda technique of making systematic injustice seem dependent on the individual, viciously weaponized by ppl on this site for a conservative purity campaign, with explicit calls for self-harm and suicide and claims of deep moral deficiency, is just....yeah it's absolutely intentionally malicious and noxious, and an escalation that i have absolutely zero tolerance for.

[dreamgirledward]

ok re: that last post i reblogged here's some advice from my own film professors:

(for context the ones that have discussed this are professionals in the field: real screenwriters, directors, video producers, editors, etc, some of which have been nominated for and/or won genie, gemini, and canadian screen awards)

nobody but the big corporations care if you stream something illegally, and they only care because they're losing you as a subscriber, not because they care about the production assistants or costumers or cgi artists getting underpaid. you want to watch pirates of the caribbean but dont have disney+ and feel bad? who cares! stream that shit! this is especially the case for older content. the crews for those films or shows already cashed whatever cheque they were owed years ago. the people making any sort of money are the people who own the rights to whatever title it is, and 90% of the time, they're not the ones with the money problems. what IS important to keep in mind is if it's an independent project. THAT'S where your money should go if you care about supporting filmmakers. streaming an indie film right when it comes out directly hurts its chances of getting distributed further and boosting the creators, because youre saying "this person isnt worth paying for a ticket despite the fact that they probably worked to fund this project themselves". even when it comes to bigger films, when a film (especially in a post-covid world) is released 'exclusively in theatres' or both in theatres and on streaming platforms and you want to support it, BUY A TICKET instead of paying to see it at home. they earn more money that way. indie films are also most importantly created outside the big studio system, so independent filmmakers actually have more creative control and they can showcase their distinct talents and styles. this is all at the risk of less people seeing what they make, while putting much more of their own money and resources into making their films. a lot of the time, these filmmakers are submitting their films to festivals all over in the hopes they'll be accepted.

speaking of which, festivals are also a great way to support film :) not only local but international films, if you want to save money for what you actually care about. you generally have to pay a fee to submit your film and obviously the smaller you are as a filmmaker, the bigger risk it is for you. usually tickets (particularly midnight or mid-day screenings) for indie films at festivals arent that expensive. i encourage anyone that wants to support filmmakers that way to absolutely go to those screenings, bc not only is it beneficial for the creators but they're actually really fun! also, a lot of festivals hold voting campaigns for the audiences to see what will be considered for more attention: here at TIFF the people's choice award (not always but enough for it to be significant) has frequently correlated with what will end up being an oscar contender, and yes this includes international films as well. taika waititi won the audience award + the ebert director award at tiff for jojo rabbit (a film that notoriously took forever for him to make because no one wanted to fund it), and he went on to win the oscar for best adapted screenplay. bong joon ho was the runner up and picked up 4 oscars for parasite that same year. i saw parasite at tiff that year and voted for it myself. i could list way more but i feel like this is just a really good example to illustrate my point lol. another notable festival that has similar voting campaigns is sundance!

anyway what im trying to say is, yes having 10 subscriptions for streaming platforms is not feasible for a lot of people. if you're worried about not supporting filmmakers/creators you care about, look into other ways you can support them that doesnt solely depend on disney taking $8-10 out of your bank account every month <3

[canonicallysoulmates]

Saw a recent ask you got. Your answer was very fair and I just wanted to add my unsolicited two cents. If there is one thing I hope people aren’t forgetting, it’s Jared’s passion for Walker. This project means the world to him and he’s putting his all into it. Nothing he’s doing for Gen should be taken as him not caring about the show. Also, I think people might be confused about Jared’s role as EP. He has creative control over the show, scripts, etc but control of marketing funding and PR is the networks responsibility.

I was lucky enough to attend his most recent M&G and he talked about Walker production being affected by the snow storm and how a lot of decisions being made have to do with that AND Covid. The show is definitely taking advantage of the fact that Gen/Jared live together and live where the show is being filmed. It’s business and it’s a marketing strategy. I’m not here to judge the effectiveness off said strategy, I’m just calling it what it is. I do think it’s fair to want to see others promote the show but that’s not all on Jared.

Also, If J&G (J&D) are PR relationships, why are people surprised when they actually PR? I get it, it’s funny, it’s cringe, it’s annoying, but by definition it’s what they have to do. Why be mad at them when they do it? I know these questions and comments ramp up anytime the wives do something but it seems like people are directing their anger more and more onto J2 (mostly Jared) for having to make decisions some of us will never understand. None of this is directed at you of course, just in general at the current atmosphere.

I get what you’re saying, but I think there’s some confusion going on here, now obviously I can’t speak for everyone but I think the majority of us are not forgetting and are fully aware how passionate Jared is about Walker, and all the hard work he has and continues to put into it; I’m assuming the part about him not caring for the show is based off of a previous ask I got, I don’t think that person was referring to Jared when they asked if they didn’t care for the show but referring to the people who are in charge of the promo. 

We’re also not putting the full blame on Jared, and we know this is marketing. 

Questioning/wondering as to Jared’s motives for lending himself to the show being promoted in such a way, and saying that Jared bares a percentage of the responsibility over this shitty ass promo doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten how important this is to Jared or that we place sole blame on him and him only. If anything the fact that we know how much work Jared has put into Walker and how much it means to him is why a lot of us are annoyed at the type of promo the show is getting because this show and Jared deserve better promotion, and we worry that focusing on the wrong thing (ie. G’s involvement and the marriage) will end up hurting the show which is the last thing we want, or at least it’s the last thing I want cause I want him to continue to succeed. 

Here’s the thing, while he is not the person in charge of the promo he does have a say in some of it, especially the ones that he lends himself to like the Talk interview, I’m sure that agreeing to be decoration in an interview that’s not actually promoting or helping the show is not an easy or pleasant thing to do but it’s something that at the end of the day he agreed to do the reasons why I don’t know, that’s up to each individual to form an opinion on, I personally don’t judge him for it, I just hope he is getting something out of it. 

I know you say none of those questions are directed at me but perhaps I can offer some insight, again I can’t speak for everyone this is just based of experience, a lot of times people are not actually surprised and when they are the reasons for why vary, sometimes it’s due to their hope that the PR wouldn’t happen, other times it’s at the way it was done, or maybe the PR was delayed so the surprise comes from them actually doing something, etc. 

Personally, I have never and will never understand getting angry at the boys for bearding and the things that come with it, I have made more than one rage post about that and how that shit doesn’t fly with me so I’m not gonna get into it here. But, what I will say regarding some people starting to direct more and more of their anger towards the boys when it comes to this is that from what I have seen it’s either people that didn’t actually like the boys to begin with or people who got it in their heads that once spn ended so would the bearding/marriages/PR and now they’re frustrated, angry, tired of it all.