#this is more of a vent than any reasonable critque

[thatmiraclecupcake]

Personally I don't give a shit if shane "eat the rich but give us 6 bucks a month in a recession so you can watch me and my friend drink lots of alcohol and read other people's stories without compensating them" madej gives the professor a boyfriend in the new puppet history season, whenever that will be. He could give the professor a million boyfriends for all I care! Personally, I won't be watching Puppet History. Or Too Many Spirits. Or any other watcher production. I'm not paying 6 bucks a month and I'm not holding my breath for if and when it gets released on youtube for free.

No hate to anyone who will be watching, I'm talking about my own feelings, and personally, I'm still mad.

[bloodmoon24]

Hi, its me again (📼 anon) and I hope you don't mind if I vent a little since you seem the kind of person to talk to. My main topic on this vent is about abuse so just a heads-up as a trigger warning.

So I'm going to admit this to you: a while back before Helluva Boss was out, I was a HUGE Vivziepop hater--like, I use to hate on her nonstop and not to mention I would also interact with antis and "critics" and rant with them. However, I was young and stupid and, honestly, I don't remember why I even started to hate her--probably because I was one of those people who seem to join in groups without any second thought.

And then, HB came out--and so I decided to watch it. I watched episode after episode, and I did rant after rant about how much wrong each episode was and did "critques" on them (it was only just stupid shit--even nitpicking the little things and just doung overlooked dumbass rants). However, one thing about Helluva Boss antis/critiques just LOVE to bash about was Stolitz--though, for me, I started to love the ship itself. Though, in fear of me of not wanting to look like I was starting to like it, I pretended to hate it even though I was starting to make it my OTP.

But then, when the first episode of the second season came out, that was when I made an 180 about my views on the show--mostly cuz I was now being more mature and I was now starting to notice how none of these critiques made no sense and/or they were just dumb because these antis were just hating on vivienne for no reason other than she just existed. Yeah, I know, its terrible because it is; not to also mention that most of these antis/critics always made assumptions that made me go "woah, wtf???"

One of the things antis/critics made it clear was one thing: Stella is a victim and Stolas is not and he's a bad guy cuz he cheated on her + many other ""opinions"" as to why she's a "good guy". This made me cringe and VERY infuriating on my part. I, a bi/pan genderqueer guy, was in a toxic and abusive relationship with an ex-girlfriend of mine who was also like Stella (minus being British)--she would hit me, calls me harsh names and insults, and would also throw things at me. I was with her for a good three years, before I decided I had enough of her shit and I promptly dumped her and called the police (she's still in prison to this day since I wanted to press charges and took this to court with a ton of evidence I collected to prove that she did those things). I've been with my boyfriend (non-binary demiromantic gay guy) for two-and-a-half years now and he makes me more happier than what my ex had for me. Obviously, I still have trauma from her, but I'm still trying to work it out with my best friend who is a therapist to go through it.

Seeing how these people will defend Stella, who is an ABUSER, just boggles me because I'm a victim of abuse and antis/critics will be like "stolas abuses blitz cuz he uses him for sex!!" but at the same time they'll support Stella and praise her for when there is implement/reference to her abusing Stolas. Like, I get it to how ppl will say she's a victim as well cuz she was forced into marriage with Stolas--which I get it, no doubt. I am not denying that--but people seem to forget that, in forced marriages, there is that one "spouse" who is a horrible person and will abuse the other. My oldest cousin on my mother's side is a victim of forced marriage, and he was abused by his "wife" for five years until he gained his independence by the help of his friends (including myself) to help move out and divorce her. He's now openly gay, and getting married to his fiancé in late October of this year.

It grosses me out, because I know damn well Stella is not a victim and these people are so hypocritical when it comes to it. She's not a savior, she's not a hero, nor does she deserve praise. I know Stolas is not perfect, but neither is Blitz and that's TOTALLY okay since no relationship is built to perfectness--and it were, then that's just being toxic and unrealistic. And since then, I am now a huge fan of Vivziepop and I rightfully got merch of both shows.

So yeah, that's my vent. Sorry if you had to read this wall of text in your inbox, but I know you would understand on why I had to vent like this. I kinda accidentally doom-scrolled the "anti stolitz" tag and I came across a post of someone cheering on for stella on abusing Stolas (ew, yucky, gross). But yeah, tl;dr: was a huge anti, turned my life around and became a fan after seeing ppl defend Stella of abuse as some who was a victim of said abuse, and fuck stella defenders :)

First of all, thank you for venting. You look like you really needed it, and I appreciate it

Second of all, thank you for telling me. Haters just don’t know when to shut up about these kinds of things. For me, I just ignore their ranting and just enjoy both shows that Viv made. There was literally no reason to hate on her. I JUST WANNA ENJOY A SHOW ABOUT GAY DEMONS WITHOUT PEOPLE COMPLAINING ABOUT IT

Third of all, Stella defenders are also idiots as well. To be honest, I thought Stella was a victim in the second episode, until we saw her again, and now I’m like, “Yup. Stella’s a bitch, and she can fuck off”

Fourth of all, I’m so sorry you had to went through that kind of stuff with your Stella (glad you broke it off with her. She just seems terrible), and found someone that actually cares and loves you. It just seems so sweet

Fifth of all, congratulations for your cousin

Sixth of all, I’m glad you turn things around for your point of view, and that just makes me happy

[mysticdragon3md3]

Lots of thoughts.  

REmembering in high school how everyone woudl just dump their problems onto me.  They vented everything and I'd feel so bad that I wasn't abel to say anything helpful/constructive to help solve their problems.  But eventually Mary said she appreciated that I just said nothing (and didn't judge).   So I know how effective a chat bot or AI, that barely says anything besides mirroring what the human vents, is.   REmembering how so much of human speech is just seeking validation and feeling listened to.  

I liked the idea of therapy bots filling in the gap for the lack of therapists.  I agree that it shouldn't be an excuse to not try to give people human therapists, nor an excuse to not give the appropriate mental health systems funding/resources.  But as a temporary relief for under-supplied places, if it can do something, then let's use the tools available to us.  

And frankly, it sounds a lot like journalling to me.  Most people process their emotions by talking it out with people.  So most people don't realize that the same catharsis and processing can be had through journalling to one's self.  I remember back a few decades ago when journalling and keeping a diary was considered an embarassing thing for "over-sensitive" types, generally little girls droning about the boys they had crushes on.  And certainly it can be that, but eveyrone generally had this misconception that journalling didn't mature along with you and always apply to you and everyone.  But all journalling is, is asking yourself questions to examine your own thoughts and perceptions of your day and past life so far in general.  I ask myself these small, mirroring questions when I write, and it's not a horrifying alarm to how the voice in my head that asks those questions of myself, is fooling the conscious me into thinking I'm having a conversation with another full person.  I was reminded how being in art class, one of the key things the professors taught was ingraining the skill to critque ourselves.  We spend a lot of time in class critiquing others, just so we could then learn to do it to ourselves, and then be able to improve ourselves constantly, without waiting for the next group critique.  We were essentially being given self-examining questions about our work in-class, until we could emulate a similar repertoire of questions to ourselves, without it being handed to us by the professor themselves. And how different was that from someone who learns art via textbook?  And how is a textbook with a list of commonly essential questions, examining the most common points in examining one's art, any different than a bot with a list of the most agreeable human interaction responses?  

I think the real problem that Weizenbaum had with AI was refusing to give it the same weight as biological humans.  I grew up on the 1995 Ghost in the Shell and other cyberpunk anime, so I've got less problems recognizing AI as either having just as much right to be respected as people, when history reaches the AI Singularity, or being respected as a useful tool, whose sharp edges you still have to be careful of, but doesn't diminish its usefulness to human/societal evolution.  The more I listened to this podcast episode, the more Weizenbaum sounded like he was just afraid and stuck on old human notions about "human superiority" and thus, defensiveness when that "superiority"/"uniqueness" was challenged.  He disturbed me more than the truth-twisting mis-information he warmed about---and I live in that age he was warning about!...When he wasn't warning about the "dangers" of not becoming increasingly Luddite.  ~.~;  Pro tip: Going to extremes in anything is generally bad; it leads to ruin.  

I was also reminded of autistic girls.  I had heard reports, video essays, documentaries, lectures, or something about how most autistic girls are often not diagnosed because they learn to simiply mimic human socialization.  They learn to preform it, even if they don't completely understand it.  Hearing Weizenbaum disparge AI bots for not completely understanding their speech, even if they were able to preform socially accepted conversations, felt like an indirect insult at autistic girls, for being similar.  The more Weizenbaum's opinions seemed to imply that this lack of full social understanding by an inhuman bot who is only able to preform socialization, was some kind of horror, if felt almost like he was calling such real life people inhuman horrors.  I can't speak for autistic girls since I've never been diagnosed (though my father has suggested a few times that our family get tested), but I could understand that feeling of preforming and mimicing socialization without fully understanding it.  And it hurt when Weizenbaum's opinions seemed to (even inadvertently) imply that the similar feelings and experiences I've always had with human interaction meant that I was inhuman and less than (as if being "human" is the measure of all Good in the universe, feh).  

One of the last quotes from one of Weizenbaum's daughters really confirmed my fears.  He had that human arrogance.  The arrogance that humans are superior to all things and just too defensive if that uniqueness gets challenged.  smfh  One of the reasons I love scifi about AI is because it challenges that human arrogance.  And sure, we need to guard against misusing AI, but human arrogance still bothers me.  I've seen humans do a lot of horrible things that will make you think they are the worst things in the universe.  I'm not so immature anymore to therefore wish humanity would disappear.  I'm not 12 anymore.  And I don't think Thanos was right.  He was just stuck at that 12 year old mentality.  But I also don't think humans are the only precious thing in the world.