#at least as far as structure goes bc I’m being Difficult with it

[wardoftheedgeloaves]

An Overview of Comparative-Historical Chinese Dialectology (II.i): Old Chinese

Let’s imagine a world in which the modern Romance languages are all extant and written in the Latin alphabet; however, Latin is not attested. If you were collecting cognates of the word for “middle” or “medium”, you’d get [mɐi.u] from Portuguese, [mitʃ] from Catalan, [med.dzo] from Italian and so on and so forth. You don’t have any Latin to compare with, but it’s not that difficult to determine that Proto-Romance had a form *mɛdjʊ or something like that.

Now imagine that you dig up a 2700-year-old tablet in southern Italy, and it has the word mefiú on it. It’s clear that it’s pretty close to your Proto-Romance, but it’s not quite the same. Some tokens of /p/ in the tablet-language correspond to *p in Proto-Romance, and some of them correspond to Proto-Romance *kw. On the other hand, it seems to have some distinctions Proto-Romance doesn’t, such as a diphthong ou which seems to fall together with Proto-Romance *u. You can read it, and it’s clear it’s closely related, but it isn’t Proto-Romance.

Imagine a different world. Here, the Romance languages are written with logograms and have been for three millennia. Thus the character 中 is read [mɐi.u] in Portugal, [mitʃ] in Catalonia, [misu] in Sardinia and [med.dzo] in Italy. You can reconstruct a Middle Romance reading *mɛdjʊ for this character.

One day a 2700-year-old tablet is found in southern Italy. The characters have strange, archaic forms and the syntax is really unusual, but it can be read. It includes an early form of the character 中. Is it Latin? Or Oscan?

Keep this analogy in mind as we dive into Old Chinese.

Old Chinese is attested from about 1250 BC in the form of inscriptions on oracle-bone tablets, followed shortly thereafter by longer texts during the Zhou era. Archaeological excavations are turning up lots of texts on wood and bamboo strips from the early and mid-first millennium BC, so we have much more raw material from the Old Chinese period to work with than we did even two or three decades ago.

Here the trouble begins. Every other script from antiquity, with the possible exception of Mayan (whose basic structure I still find entirely inscrutable), includes considerable phonological information: the cuneiform syllabary, Linear B, even Egyptian hieroglyphs. Many of these scripts can be underspecifying to the point of ambiguity for modern scholars, like Linear B or hieroglyphs, but the basic organizing principle is phonemic. If you see wa-na-ka on a Linear B tablet, you have automatically narrowed the reading of the word down to a handful of possible phonemic interpretations.

With Old Chinese, all this goes out the window. Oh, it’s not that there’s no phonological information available to us about the period; there’s plenty if you know where to look. But Old Chinese, and the script in particular, only reveal their phonological secrets through smoke and mirrors. It’s a difference of kind, not of degree, compared with such relative walks-in-the-park as a cuneiform syllabic with two possible readings or an unvocalized scrap of Semitic.

Thus, reconstructing Old Chinese requires drawing on a vast amount of rather disparate evidence, which includes (but is not necessarily limited to):

 the phonetic clues in the actual script, particularly the rebus principle used to create phono-semantic compound characters; 

rhymes in ancient poetry;

the recoverable historical phonology of the modern varieties of Chinese; 

early borrowings into neighboring languages such as Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Hmongic and, to a lesser extent, borrowings into Sinitic from foreign languages such as Tocharian;

comments on “rustic” or “incorrect” forms of speech in early sources;

unusual character usage (before the Han dynasty or so, many words are found written with more than one character, and some characters are used to write multiple words; usually these conflations involved some degree of phonetic similarity)

last and (for the most part) least, evidence from non-Sinitic relatives such as Tibetan and Burmese. This is the most fraught and least reliable source of evidence, because Sinitic doesn’t seem to have any particularly close relatives within Sino-Tibetan and the state of Proto-Sino-Tibetan is still quite hazy.

Now, Baxtar and Sagart conclude that attested Old Chinese is so vanishingly close to the last common ancestor of all attested varieties of Sinitic that “Old Chinese” and “Proto-Sinitic” can be conflated except in the most pedantic and exacting of contexts. It’s tempting, therefore, to assume that we can just throw Min, Mandarin, Cantonese and maybe a few borrowings into Korean into the comparative method and collect Old Chinese as it comes out through the grinder. But this is wrong. Old Chinese was almost identical to, indeed for almost all purposes was, the last common ancestor of attested modern Chinese varieties, but it doesn’t look much like modern varieties of Chinese and the comparative method alone will give you a highly incomplete picture. It should therefore serve as a cautionary tale for overly optimistic comparativists; the comparative method is usually lossy even with a wide range of languages to work with, but in the absence of contemporaneous attestation we simply can’t know what we don’t know.

So what did Old Chinese look like?

First and foremost, no tones. Tones do not begin to develop in Chinese until sometime in the Han period. As far as I know every single modern variety of Chinese is tonal (barring fringe cases like Wutun that have lost tone under the influence of unusual contact situations), and I believe the tonal system of every modern variety can be derived through various twists and turns from the “four-tone” (really three-tone; we’ll get to it later) system of Middle Chinese.

How does this work? Essentially, what’s going on is that the comparative method can reconstruct distinctions and developments that occurred at different times. Tone in Chinese is somewhere around two thousand years old and develops at the very end of the Old Chinese period (you could make a case for its development being the Old Chinese-Middle Chinese boundary). Every single modern variety has it, because it spread across and encompassed the entirety of what must have been the dialect patchwork of Han-dynasty China. But that dialect patchwork was not uniform, and traces of its nature from before the rise of tonal distinctions are still with us. For example, there must have been an allowed Old Chinese coda consonant *-r which merges, in Middle Chinese and in almost all conservative dialect groups such as Min, with *-n. However, a small corner of Shandong has -j for Old Chinese *-r despite the fact that dialects that preserver the *-n/*-r distinction are otherwise completely unexceptional varieties of Mandarin--coda stop loss, tonal and sibilant developments, the whole nine yards. Zhou- and Han-era dialects of Shandong, see footnote at end of post.

Does this mean that we have to revise the phylogeny of Chinese to look like this?

No!

It simply means that “Old Chinese” was not uniform, resembling in important ways the dialect continuum of Iron Age Italy more than the standard Latin of Cicero, and while the Old Chinese patchwork developed as a single unit in important ways (such as tonogenesis) during the transition from Old to Middle Chinese and into modern varieties, there are still glitches in the matrix.

To beat a nearly-dead analogy, we can imagine a variety spoken in a village in Umbria which is mutually intelligible with standard Italian and has undergone identical developments for two thousand years, but which happens to reflect Proto-Italic *f *þ medially as /v/. It would be incorrect to say that this variety is modern Oscan and more separate from its neighbors, to whose speakers it is merely an odd accent, than its neighbors are from Portuguese or French. At the same time, its conservation of a distinction that not even Ciceronian Latin maintains introduces complications into our sense of what “proto-Romance” or “the Romance languages” or “Italian” actually mean. And since, grammatically, this variety has developed along with the Vulgar Latin and Italian dialects that surround it, we would be unable to recover the Latin passive or the case system from it. The “last common ancestor” that maintained all the distinctions of the Romance-languages-plus-Italian-with-Oscan-characteristics was Proto-Italic, but vast swaths of Proto-Italic have still been lost to time, and the comparative method will deliver you a language that was never spoken by anybody (Vulgar Latin, except with a four-way medial distinction *-f-/*-þ-/*-b-/*-d- rather than a two-way *-b-/*-d- distinction).

As a final note on this topic, nobody appears to have noticed that the *-r/*-n distinction was carried on in modern Chinese until Sergei Starostin in 1981, and even he did not identify which dialects had the distinction, only that some did*. This is another reason it’s important to do fieldwork and descriptions of Chinese varieties spoken in rural areas; cities are easier to get to, but they don’t usually have the really unusual varieties that you need access to find distinctions from this. It is possible, for example, that there’s still a corner of Sichuan that speaks Ba-Shu Chinese, an old dialect group that is thought to have been completely replaced by Mandarin during the Ming period and extinct except as a substrate. But we don’t know, because an exhaustive dialect survey of Sichuan has not (to my knowledge) been done.

(This post is long enough to publish at this point and so I’m going to cut it off here and turn Old Chinese into a subseries of posts.)

*It’s not clear on a second reading whether or not Shandong dialects still reflect *-r as -j, because the sources cited are contemporaneous complaints about Shandong speakers. Apparently though the *-ar rhyme is reflected as -i in some Min varieties and “Chǔ-Qú”, which seems to be a group of Wu dialects spoken on the Zhejiang-Fujian border, so the above analogy holds except that it’s Chǔ-Qú Wu that plays the part of Oscan-flavored Italian. I do recall reading somewhere though that there are definitely varieties of “Mandarin” that maintain distinctions not even found in Min, so...

[frankencomplex]

hc - mbti

          god I already know this is gonna get so fuckign long bc i’m a huge nerd and can never shut up abt personality analyzation. on tht note , if anyone ever wants to talk mbti or just have me overanalyze ur muse’s personality..... hmu bc i physically cannot shut up abt it

charles is an intp ! i’ve probably said this before & it’s like weirdly integral to my portrayal of him ( or at least gives a lot of insight into it ) so for those of you who don’t know what mbti is at All , it’s a personality typology theory that divides human personalities into four categories : introverts / extroverts , intuitives / sensors , thinkers / feelers , and judgers / perceivers. therefore , charles is an introvert intuitive thinker perceiver , or if you want to get real deep & use cognitive function theories , he uses Ti ( introverted thinking ) , Ne ( extroverted intuition ) , Si ( introverted sensing ) , and Fe ( extroverted feeling ) in that order. 

if you read about the basic characteristics of an intp , the personality type ( sometimes nicknamed “ the logician ” ) is known for being “ philosophical innovators, fascinated by logical analysis, systems, and design. They are preoccupied with theory, and search for the universal law behind everything they see. They want to understand the unifying themes of life, in all their complexity. ” source 

the description above is charles to a T , and i’ll explain why ! he’s a huge introvert. by no means does he gain energy from social gatherings , and he’s far more content to explore the contents of his own mind than to explore the minds of others. he’s an intuitive , which means he’s more concerned with abstract , unconventional ideas , and can be quite detached from the world around him , while a sensor would be focused on reality and their concrete senses. he’s metaphorical , dreamy , non - traditional , and unfocused ( though that is not solely an N trait ). he’s a thinker , which means he relies on logic & facts more than his own feelings or the feelings of those around him. lastly , he’s a perceiver , meaning he prefers to work at his own pace without rigid structure , and prefers open endedness over set plans and commitments.

I know that’s a lot , but it makes a lot of sense when you read about it. now , to get deeper , mbti is supported by the theory of cognitive functions ( Ti > Ne > Si > Fe for charles as I mentioned earlier ). the whole idea is that every personality type uses a “ function stack ” of different modes of thinking / interacting with / viewing the world , and there are four predominant functions per type that are all accessed at decreasing levels of development. the first function is the most developed , the last is the least. so , without further ado , here’s charles’s personality type explained by his four functions. i’ve taken the most useful parts of the article on the following website. source

INTPs’ Dominant Function: Introverted Thinking (Ti)

Ti involves the application of logic and reason for the sake of understanding a given situation, system, or problem. INTPs use Ti to bring structure and order to their inner world, granting them a strong sense of inner control. Inwardly, INTPs are highly self-disciplined, working to effectively manage their thoughts and their lives. The disciplined nature of their Ti compels INTPs to frame many things as a goal or challenge. These challenges may be physical (e.g., trying to achieve an ideal state of health or fitness), intellectual, practical, psychoemotional (e.g., becoming self-actualized), or later in their development, interpersonal (e.g., “perfecting” a relationship or becoming a skilled lover). In order to succeed in these personal challenges, INTPs are apt to impose rules on themselves. However, because of the wayward influence of their auxiliary Ne, they commonly end up breaking or sabotaging them.

INTPs are also less interested in working with facts than with ideas. Jung writes: “His ideas have their origin not in objective data, but in his subjective foundation.” INTPs are constantly digging into the background of their own thoughts in order to better understand their origins and to ensure their thinking is founded on solid reasoning. They see it pointless to try to build theories on a dubious conceptual platform.

INTPs often find it easier to identify inconsistencies or logical shortcomings—to assert what is not true—than to identify and confidently assert what is true. They can quickly locate inconsistencies or logical shortcomings in a given theory or argument. They excel when it comes to identifying exceptions or imagining scenarios in which the proposed explanation could breakdown. Due to their sensitivity to theoretical exceptions, they can be quick to throw theories and start from scratch. INTJs, by contrast, seem less deterred by ostensible exceptions, perhaps feeling that they will eventually be explained or otherwise rectified.

When functioning constructively, INTPs, like INFPs, often employ a trial-and-error sort of approach to building their theories and ideas. INTPs start with a given (Ti) and then use their auxiliary Ne to explore various connections and possibilities. They also integrate past experiences and acquired knowledge through their tertiary Si. It is usually only after years of toying with ideas that something resembling a systematic and coherent theory may start to emerge.

INTPs’ Auxiliary Function: Extraverted Intuition (Ne)

INTPs use Extraverted Intuition (Ne) as their auxiliary function. Ne can function either perceptively or expressively. The verbal expression of Ne amounts to something like “brainstorming aloud.” When orating, INTPs may not always seem to “have a point” as they haphazardly drift from one idea to the next. Even ideas that seem inwardly logical and sensible INTPs may suddenly sound incoherent when they attempt to convey them through their Ne.

In its receptive role, Ne prompts INTPs to gather information. It goes beyond or looks behind sense data, allowing INTPs to discern otherwise hidden patterns, possibilities, and potentials. Their Ne is constantly scanning for relationships or patterns within a pool of facts, ideas or experiences. INTPs commonly use this receptive side of their Ne in activities such as reading, researching, and conversation. They enjoy asking questions that allow them to gain insight or knowledge from others, making INTPs good facilitators of conversation.

INTPs may also use their Ne to sniff out intriguing possibilities. They commonly enjoy and assume the role of wanderer or seeker, rarely knowing in advance exactly what they are seeking.

Ne also confers an open-mindedness, helping INTPs see truth on both sides of an issue without forming unwarranted judgments or premature conclusions. More specifically, their Ne can be seen as contributing to their openness to alternative or Bohemian lifestyles. INTPs are those most likely to suddenly become vegetarians, join a commune, or decide to live out of the back of a van. They are drawn to the idea and challenges of an unconventional lifestyle.

Like other NPs, INTPs often have a love-hate relationship with their Ne. They love the fact that it helps them remain open-minded and grasp the bigger picture. But living with Ne also has its challenges. For one, it can make it difficult for INTPs to arrive at firm conclusions or make important decisions. It often seems that at the very moment they are feeling good about a given conclusion or decision, their Ne steps in and causes them to start doubting it again. This has obvious implications for INTPs who are trying to find their niche in the world. This can leave them feeling discouraged and restless, worried that they may never find what they are looking for. They may feel frustrated by their seeming lack of progress toward anything substantial. The fact is that INTPs desperately want to produce something of lasting worth or value, but they also want to ensure they get it right. They don’t want to leave any stone unturned before arriving at a conclusion. While INTPs typically enjoy this quest for truth, there comes a point when they begin to feel the pressures of life impinging on them. Questions about careers and relationships loom large as they enter their late twenties and thirties. This can be frustrating to INTPs as they feel like life is requiring them to make decisions long before they are ready. As is true of all IN types, they feel that life would be far better if they weren’t forced to consider practical concerns.

INTPs’ Tertiary Function: Introverted Sensing (Si)

Unlike Ne (or Se), INTPs’ tertiary function, Introverted Sensing (Si), is a conservative function. It involves an attachment to past experiences and past precedent—to the routine, familiar, and predictable. Types with Si in their functional stack, including INTPs, tend to eat a fairly routine or consistent diet, “eating to live” rather than “living to eat.” Si types are not only conservative with regard to their diet, but with respect to the material world in general. They tend to be savers rather than spenders, seeing excessive material consumption as unnecessary, or perhaps even immoral.

Like other Si types, INTPs also have a diminished need for novel physical pleasures, lavish surroundings, or material comforts. They are minimalists to the core, relatively unconcerned with their physical surroundings.

INTPs’ Inferior Function: Extraverted Feeling (Fe)

Last but not least, Extraverted Feeling (Fe) serves as INTPs’ inferior function. While having inferior feeling doesn’t make INTPs emotionless robots, their feelings do seem to have a mind of their own, often coming and going as they please. Realizing how hard it can be to voluntarily contact or summon their emotions, INTPs tend to feel awkward and uneasy in emotional situations. Although they may be cognitively aware of the appropriate emotional response, if they’re unable to directly tap into their feelings, INTPs can appear clumsy, mechanical, or disingenuous. This can be unsettling to others who are looking for outward signs of authentic emotion from the INTP.

Fe is also concerned with maintaining social harmony. While Ti and Ne may inspire INTPs to function as provocateurs, their Fe encourages them to operate as peacemakers. Far more often than INTJs, INTPs will “bite their tongue” in order to avoid hurting or offending others. Doing so also minimizes the likelihood of emotionally-volatile situations which can engender anxiety and disquiet in this type.

Another aim of Fe involves establishing emotional rapport and connection with others. But again, while INTPs may do at fair job at reading others’ emotions, they may fail to actually “feel” what the other person is feeling. This is why INTPs are sometimes described as “outwardly warm, but inwardly cold or calculating.” Fe can be a bit of an act in the first place (e.g., political glad-handing), but this seems particularly commonplace among INTPs and ISTPs. Although casual social engagement may help them feel good for a while, perhaps even give them an ego boost, without sufficient Ti stimulation, it won’t be long before they’re scoping out the nearest exit.

Finally, it’s not unusual for INTPs to oscillate through phases in which they feel they don’t need other people at all. Especially when their work life is running on all cylinders, they can feel invigorated and invincible. But the psyche will only permit this sort of Ti lopsidedness for so long. Eventually, INTPs start feeling a bit lonely or empty, sensing that something important is missing from their lives. This prompts them to reinitiate contact with others, at least until they feel compelled to reassert their independence. Striking a balance between their independence (Ti) and relationships (Fe) can thus constitute a lifelong challenge for this personality type.

that’s all , if you read this far I will love you forever. if you ever want to talk personality shit , here I am

#✂ :: HC. ❛ 𝐼'𝓂 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 ! #✂ :: ABOUT. ❛ 𝒜𝒸𝒸𝓁𝒶𝒾𝓂𝑒𝒹 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑔𝑒𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓈 #( god i am just #a fucking nerd #i go too deep #and i got hate abt it on twitter lmao so now here it is #on tumblr instead #but genuinely i think this is so interesting and worth reading if you want insight on my portrayal? #or if you just ever want to talk abt personality types God )

[possiblypeachy]

manufactured.

--; summary: The XK-100 model was designed to be many things: charming yet brutal, elusive yet blunt, gentle yet commandeering. What she wasn't designed to be was deviant. But, being so advanced can come with a cost.

You decide what that cost is.

> part two

[determinant factors are in italics]

[warnings that apply to this chapter are in bold]

--; pairings: connor x xk-100, captain allen x xk-100

--; word count: 2.1k

--; themes: slow burn romance, angst, violence, platonic fluff, eventual smut

--; warnings: depictions of violence, death, suicide

--; note: hola mis amigos! this is the first piece of writing that i’m actually putting up here so go easy on me please and thank you! pardon any horrendous mistakes and/or terrible explanation of plot points :( 

in places this story will deviate (haha deviate) from canon. this allows me to weave my lovely little xk-100 model into scenarios that can help shape her personality for future installments. also, it gives me a chance to dabble with her interacting with minor characters that don’t get enough love!

if all goes well, i’d like to make this into a kind of ‘choose your own story’ type read bc i love me a good challenge and i want to give it the true d:bh feel. it’ll take a while to fan the options out but i’m a fast worker when inspired ;)

anywho, feel free to shoot me a message to ask me questions about this or give me suggestions! i’m also open to requests for now so hit me with your best shot, kiddos.

without further ado, enjoy!

[apolgies if this looks shit on mobile/anything really. i'll clean it up later :)]

—————

The first thing she felt was something clicking to the back of her head. Streams of code filled black vision: a start-up process. Lines upon lines of binary were read at a speed that was inhuman, registering her programming and purpose. Though a crucial process, the small camera watching her saw nothing of what was going on behind those white eyelids-- not even a twitch to signal that she was functional.

Then, narrow eyes flickered open, much like a light bulb turning on after years of no use. Pale irises were revealed to the room, intricate patterns of ice and frost weaved around her pupil. They were shadowed by a line of dark lashes, removing the possibility of deducing what she was thinking by way of looking into her eyes. Yet the contrast between the light and dark made her hold an aura of allure. Even he, someone who had prepared for her to look like this, was momentarily hypnotised. Nevertheless, a pang of discomfort was felt when his gaze finally fell to her static form. She appeared detached from the world -- cold. She would be perfect for her job.

From his seat, her overseer leant down to a microphone. “Can you hear me?” A male voice reached her sensors and the LED on the side of her head sprang to life, glowing a calming blue. Tentative eyes watched her through the camera. His heart rate increased when her LED began circling-- processing. This was make or break. They'd tried to make models like her far too many times before but failed; she hadn't looked intimidating enough, she couldn't make sense of her own complexity, her thirium pump hadn't been wholly compatible. God, he'd seen so many of her previous attempts shutdown before they were even able to speak.

Anxiety. Worry. Tension. “Yes. I can hear you.” All those emotions dissolved-- cascaded from his conscience like the most beautiful waterfall he could ever witness--  and he leant back in his chair, instead filled with relief. A sigh that could've praised God itself left him before he moved to look at the live feed of her again. She was completely unmoving-- no blinking, no twitching of her eyes, no breathing. Instead, she was waiting.

“What's your serial number and model name?” The worry rose in him again as his sight glanced to the tablet before him, filled to the brim with information on her. All his team's plans for her, her I.D. and registration codes, who she was going to be given to, her abilities, her materials-- all of it-- stored on one tablet. Everything had to be checked. She had to confirm that all of her components were functional. If she said one wrong thing, she would be deconstructed and analysed.

The android's voice was smooth and unwavering-- unaware of the pressure placed upon her. Perhaps one could describe it as scheming. Hearing it laid a blanket of unsettling calm across those around yet it was beguiling-- mysterious. “#572 236 091 – 31. My model name is XK-100.” Her expression still showed nothing. Good.

The robotic arms whirred around her and created gentle streams of wind as they welded white plastic parts together, ensuring that her body was sturdy; she needed to be as durable as possible. Two of them spun on their pivots to receive an arm-- already constructed and able to move when tugged in a certain direction and therefore, hopefully, functional. Rather than screwing it into place, it clicked as though it was a dislocated bone being fixed. When the arms let go of it, it hung at her side-- lifeless.

He wasn't lifeless, however. Oh, quite the contrary. Having been working on this project for near to seven years now, he felt like a little clap and chuckle wouldn't be deemed all too unprofessional. They'd been planning an android like this for almost a decade: an android who was capable of taking down an entire riot single-handedly if the need arose. Her team had programmed tiny aspects of her day in, day out. Many sleepless nights were spent animating her custom expressions, blueprinting the structure and materials of her frame, weaving code into her artificial mind. By admittance of the former CEO of CyberLife himself, she was perhaps the most intelligent android they had yet made-- and that was Kamski's words from years before. Now, if she didn't possess that whirling LED on her temple and her posture wasn't so stiff, people could peg her as more life-like than some humans.

He spoke again. She picked up on the thrilled waver to his voice and committed it to her short-term memory stores. “Move your head.” As asked, her head craned from one side to another-- eyes yet to follow the direction of movement naturally. Then, she stopped rather suddenly back at the centre. The camera swerved to the front of her and lifted itself to her eye level. “Now, move your eyes.” Her eyelids jolted into motion and she blinked erratically-- even her brows furrowed. He felt as though he was intently watching her trying to remove something from the surface of her eyeball; it was uncomfortable, yes, but inevitably natural. Then, her sight began to sweep across the sterile room, recognising the area as Manufacturing Room 2462-B in the CyberLife Tower. Blinking was rhythmic yet not too unnatural. She was beginning to appear more human. Uncomfortably so.

The team working on her understood that she would be some of CyberLife's best work but, from what he could gather, they hadn't expected her to look so... alive. At least, he didn't.

“Good. Now, tell me your introductory text.”

“Hello. I am a first generation XK-100 android. I am designed to assist Special Weapons and Tactics units in high-risk cases. Alongside being much more durable than humans, I am able to process and successfully predict reasonable outcomes for scenarios-- if given enough verbal or physical queues. I am familiar with S.W.A.T training programs and have an accuracy rating of 96% when in optimal conditions.”

Cases of deviancy had been on the rise and more and more police cases were being taken over by S.W.A.T units. Their only downfall was that they were a mainly human organisation, thus making it more and more difficult for them to track ever developing deviant androids. With her on missions, their success rates would soar-- or so the team who had made her hoped.

“My battery allows me to work autonomously for 212 years and I do not require food or water to survive. Due to the nature of my programming, I am required to make frequent reports to my higher-ups on the condition of my software and, every 2 years, I must undergo a renewal of my permit to bypass the 'American Androids Act, subsection 544-7'-- which allows me to carry weapons as long as I have human supervision.” Her speech paused for a moment and her overseer watched with baited breath. Had her vocals malfunctioned? They couldn't have. She wasn't supposed to stop speaking. Fuck, fuck, fuck! They'd almost had--

“Would you like to name me?” An exhale. Thank the Lord. Perhaps she was already developing mannerisms? She was designed to integrate into a team-- to be adaptable-- and humans didn't take well to stiff androids. It would help her fit in; they'd aspired for her to be like this yet she seemed to be learning quickly-- faster than they'd suspected.

Her other arm clicked itself into place before he spoke and pale skin began to bleed across her plastic body, coating her in practically human layers of pores and tones. Black hair sprouted from her scalp and flopped down into its default style: short, gently waved, and middle-parted-- convenient for her designated career yet not unfamiliar or strange to humans. She began to exude a strange type of stern attractiveness-- every colour that she possessed merging together to create an amalgamation of, what he could only say was, foreign beauty.

“Yes. Your name will be set to...” His eyes flickered down to the tablet before him, “Kassandra.”

Unnervingly, her icy eyes stared straight into the camera. It was as though she was maintaining eye contact with him. Then, her lips twitched somewhat before forming an ever-so-slightly lopsided smile. The smile was charming but seeing it painted across the features of a half-built android was concerning to him. It didn't put him at ease. Rather, his expression tightened. But he couldn't look away from her, seemingly caught in the frost that built in her irises.

“My name is Kassandra. I am pleased to meet you.”

He shivered. All his previous excitement appeared to have dissipated and nothing came through the speakers installed in the ceiling for a few moments. The camera was stationary, positioned before her. He almost felt a degree of sympathy for her; she-- Kassandra-- looked, sounded so... real. Out on the field, she would develop her own habits, her own ticks, her own sense of humour-- just like a human. Yet, her only goal was to detain people-- to kill, on occasion-- and he knew that would never change, no matter how alive she appeared. They programmed her to be like this. He programmed her to be like--

One of her legs were put into place, the socket being filled with an echoing 'clunk!' noise. Said sound made the overseer cough and return to his own mission, watching skin spread over her newly installed limb. She was simply an android. The morality of it all didn't need to come into the equation. “Can you move your arms?”

As Kassandra mindlessly followed his requests, new limbs being added and her programming being tested, he couldn't help notice her becoming smarter even here. Her gaze conveyed emotion-- enquiry, determination, amusement. She had begun to tap her fingers together while waiting for her next instructions. The LED on the side of her head would circle and flicker to yellow more often-- as though she took things into more consideration than the average android.

Finally, she stepped off of the podium. Bare feet padded across the sterile floor of the manufacturing room and paused to allow their owner to briefly scan the room. Now, she had full access to her files, his files, CyberLife's files-- everything. Her LED circled yellow once then returned to blue. She looked back to the camera. “What should I do now, Stephen?”

Stephen-- his name. God, she was analysing him and he wasn't even there. Kassandra likely knew where he was in the building, his age, his annual salary, the millions of possible things that he could do within the next few seconds.

Possibility #762: he turned his microphone back on and cleared his throat to hide his rising stress level. “The conveyor belt to your right will transport you to a specially designed loading bay. A small team of S.W.A.T members will pick you up and take you to your base of operation. You should be working under an... 'Allen'-- 'Captain Allen', so report to him as soon as you arrive.” There was a pause. The half-blue half-yellow LED on her temple was accompanied by a mildly confused expression. “Good luck out there, Kass. I'm glad you're finally functional.”

“I, too, am glad that I am able to move, unlike my predecessors.” Kassandra gave the smallest nod to the camera before leading herself to the conveyor belt. Behind the lenses of the camera, Stephen laughed-- the kind of tired laugh that came through your nose. For him, it was kind of like watching his really unsettling child go off to university, despite the fact that she'd only been operative for two hours at most. Maybe it was because he was one of the few constants in the team as they planned her out. Perhaps she'd already enraptured him with her strange, otherworldly charm. Either way, a sense of bittersweetness resided in his heart as he watched her pick her way into the outside world.

Kassandra took a mindless step onto the belt and it began to whir. “Goodbye, Stephen.” Click, click, click. Slowly, it lurched into motion, reeling her away from the room.

SEARCHING . . . . . .

       'Appropriate ways to say goodbye'

LOADING RESULTS . . . . . .

     i.   “I hope to see you again soon.”

       ii.  “Have a nice day.”

      iii. “Say 'Hi' to your kids for me!”

  iiii. “I'll miss you.”

Then, she disappeared from sight-- shipped off like trained-to-kill merchandise to that... Captain Allen guy. Stephen continued to stare at the camera for a small while, absently bringing his flask of coffee up to his lips and taking a long sip.

His lips pursed.

“I'll miss you too, Kass.”

#detroit become human #dbh #detroit: bh #dbh x oc #dbh connor x oc #connor x oc #dbh captain allen x oc #captain allen x oc #dbh fanfic #dbh writing #writing #rk800 x oc #dbh imagine #xk-100 #fanfic #dbh connor x reader #dbh captain allen x reader #captain allen x reader #connor x reader

[seasaltmemories]

If your still willing do the opinion meme, "A5 had the worst treatment of female characters in ygo to date"

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

This is a topic I have a lot of thoughts about (and even have planned to do meta on), bc while I am aware and plan to acknowledge several of its flaws, I still feel that A5 was actively trying to include female characters and treat them right

Like think of which groups that didn’t have female characters, very few parts of the story or factions were primarily male, most of the time there was at least one female character in the group, sometimes this bordered on pure tokenism, but the overall effect worked for me bc it piles up by the end.  Like this is me naming off female characters at the top of my head: Yuzu, Ayu, Yoko, Himika, Masumi, Mieru, Serena, Rin, Ruri, Sayaka, The Tyler Sisters, Asuka, Ray.  All these characters have multiple appearances and do great work to presenting a world where female duelists aren’t unusual, it seems like a small thing but in comparison to 5D’s (which I also love but the fact it is often regarded as having above average female rep and that I’ve rewatched the first few episodes makes it the easiest to compare) it really stands out.  In the former by thirteen episodes we’ve met five female characters and you could argue all of them have been directly involved with the plot (Yoko and Ayu are debatable but that’s still 3/5).  With 5D’s by episode thirteen we’ve seen Mikage and are just meeting Ruka (One of Yusei’s Satellite friends has a very feminine appearance, Rally, but the wiki told me that he was a guy) Part of this is dude to the fact the main focus early on is on the Yusei vs. Jack rivalry and Yusei goes to prison for a while, and I don’t mean to diminish the great stuff involved with Aki and all, but this is just such a common problem in Shounen in general, many just feel so male-centric, so that’s why I find it so important to emphasize the more gender-equal background.

As a result of this slight increase and Yuzu’s role as a deuteragonist, we end up almost always having a female storyline to follow in the process, we get to consistently see female characters who are treated like individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and relationships, it’s a lot of good stuff that is sorely undervalued, not to mention the world is not saved by the protag, but a girl: twice.  In fact out of the main group of female characters only one is a non-duelist (Himika) and even then her job isn’t simply to cheerleader or anything.  It’s far from balanced and in future YGO I hope there’s a push for more female characters whose gender is irrelevant to the overall plot or making sure there’s at least one girl on screen, but I still think this progress is worthy of praise

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: the bracelet girls’ treatment.  Before we talk about specifics, we need to acknowledge that part of it was due to the entire way the plot was structured.  When the entire show is about collecting four people to bring back a grieving scientist’s child, it’s very hard to avoid the focus being on kidnapping/saving the targets.  And Yugioh has had plenty of male characters in need of saving and rescuing from time to time.  However the fact that they’re female in a male-heavy cast doesn’t do it any favors.  Looking at that through this lens though, I am pretty ok with most of the broad strokes of the plot.  It’s hard to get mad the number of times Yuzu switches hands when the villain is doing everything in his power to get her.  And while I would love a bit more characterization with Ruri, with how the fact Rin and Ruri were already captured before the story started, there was not much you can do, and even then I’m pretty sure the how mind-control subplot was just to make sure we got to see Rin and Ruri duel (which would explain how sloppy it was) I think the biggest problem comes in with how Yuzu and Serena’s dueling status is treated

Like for the plot to function the way they have structured it, then Yuzu and Serena need to be captured, the fact they can defend themselves makes this difficult when added to all the other stuff going down so they just decide to take away their duel disks/ability to duel.  From a writing standpoint it’s logical, but at the same time it robs them some of the agency in the plot.  Like it’s almost hilarious how Yuzu more or less just loses her duel disk after her tag duel with Sora, there are so many points where she is simply unable to act due to not having it, and the show knows it since she operates the same plot-wise, I just think time constraints and perhaps card sales (I have no idea how Melodious were received so don’t take that as a fact) made it difficult for her to actively defend herself.  Serena I discussed more in this meta, but the biggest short-coming with her arc is that after Season 3, she is reduced to a “bracelet girl” as opposed to her own individual.

It’s bc of that structure that the second half of season 3 is so male, the only girl we have impacting the plot is Ray, but even she is mainly doing that through Reira (whose gender situation is so ambiguous I find it best not to address) I think the bracelet girl situation wouldn’t have been received so badly if we had a female lancer who was a non-bracelet girl like Mieru and/or Masumi had come along or one of the guy lancers had instead been a girl, or we could have given Yuya a duel against Serena bc she was a lancer as well but I digress

TLDR: While A5 treated its female characters like characters and they got to impact the plot, due to the fact Leo’s entire goal was to kidnap the bracelet girls, they were forced to lose some agency 

#seasalt talks #arc v meta #arc v #thanks for the ask!! #meta #idk if I even stayed completely on topic #but these details just are never discussed so I wanted to bring them to light #skittymon

[pinelife3]

What is a labyrinth for?

I've been reading House of Leaves for the last ~7 months. I'm interested, but not engaged: all those months of toil and I'm still only 300 pages in (it is really tempting to just read the Wikipedia summary). The book is about a house which is bigger on the inside than on the outside. People find a mysterious passage which leads to endless hallways, rooms leading to more rooms. An expedition is mounted and the group spend close to two weeks exploring the insides of the house's walls. It takes them four days to descend a staircase. They never find the outside, the house never ends. And as the story goes on the house becomes increasingly hostile and it’s driving people crazy, floors are spontaneously opening up and swallowing unsuspecting alcoholics down into bottomless pits.

Throughout the book (or, really, throughout the bit I've read so far - haha how many book reports have been authored by people who have only read a fraction of the book?) there are lots of references to labyrinths and their purpose. Such a cool word - what's the meaning of 'lab'? Labyrith = misspelt start to labia? That would be interesting. Fingers crossed that that's an upcoming twist in HoL. Okay: the etymology - Online Etymology Dictionary:

c. 1400, laberynthe (late 14c. in Latinate form laborintus) "labyrinth, maze, great building with many corridors and turns,"figuratively "bewildering arguments," from Latin labyrinthus, from Greek labyrinthos "maze, large building with intricate passages," especially the structure built by Daedelus to hold the Minotaur, near Knossos in Crete, a word of unknown origin.

A word of unknown origin... Spooky. They go on:

Apparently from a pre-Greek language; traditionally connected to Lydian labrys "double-edged axe," symbol of royal power, which fits with the theory that the original labyrinth was the royal Minoan palace on Crete. It thus would mean "palace of the double-axe." But Beekes finds this "speculative" and compares laura "narrow street, narrow passage, alley, quarter," also identified as a pre-Greek word. Used in English for "maze" early 15c., and in figurative sense of "confusing state of affairs" (1540s). As the name of a structure of the inner ear, the essential organ of hearing, from 1690s.

This is definitely irrelevant, but in Homer, Odysseus’ stock epithet is ‘cunning’ - the first lines of The Odyssey are: “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns.” Is this twists and turns because he’s cunning and able to confound people with his ‘figuratively bewildering arguments’ - or is this twists and turns because he’s a terrible navigator and we’re about to hear all about his epic, decade-long journey home from Troy?

Anyway, kind of feels pointless to tell the story of the Minotaur and his labyrinth because you definitely already know it, but just briefly:

Tale as old as time, True as it can be, Blah blah blaaaah  Beauty and the beast

After some funny business between Poseidon and Minos (the king of Crete), the queen (Minos’ wife - and also the daughter of Helios, the sun) falls in love with a bull which was originally given to Minos by Poseidon under the proviso that he (Minos) would sacrifice it to honour Poseidon (sweet deal). Anyway, the queen is totally besotted with this bull and decides she wants to kick things up a gear sexually so she has Daedalus (of wax wings fame) make a hollow fake cow so she can get banged by the bull (what could go wrong?). She winds up pregnant and gives birth to the Minotaur - the queen tries to raise him right but he is savage. Because he’s a monstrosity, he had no natural food source and settles upon humans as his food of choice. 

Minos commissions Daedalus to build a labyrinth (I presume the Cretan royalty had some kind of family discount plan) and they shove the Minotaur in there. Why didn’t Minos just kill the Minotaur? The oracle at Delphi said not to. Plus, I guess it might have upset his wife a bit. Why didn’t Minos just kill Daedalus? That’d be too easy. It seems like at the core of most myths there’s a kernel of morality tale:

For Daedalus: just because you can doesn’t mean you should - be more careful about the stuff you build. And don’t enable bestiality 

For Minos: don’t sass Poseidon

For the queen: typical Greek stuff - all women (even the daughters of the sun god) are depraved liars with bizzareo sexual leanings. Even though it was a curse from Poseidon that gave her those impulses, her shame echoes through eternity (which is weirdly her only cosmic punishment - besides, I guess, being separated from her one true love, the bull... actually, I’m not sure what happened there. One assumes that after the Minotaur thing she decided to hit the brakes on her relationship with the bull but maybe they grew old together, lying in the sun in grassy pastures for the rest of their lives)

If you were hoping that this was the only tale of lady/bull romance from ancient Greece, you are shit out of luck. In another story from Crete, ya boy Zeus takes a fancy to a woman named Europa. Rather than woo her using any of the conventional means, Zeus transforms into a huge white bull and abducts her, taking her to the island of Crete. She becomes Crete’s first queen and has some kids with Zeus - it’s unclear whether this goes down with Zeus in bull or human form. It transpires that one of the kids born from Europa’s affair with Zeus is Minos. So Minos’ mother and wife both had unsavoury relationships with bulls. 

That was a long detour - getting back to the Labyrinth: it was built in Crete to house the Minotaur. The idea was that the Minotaur would never be able to escape, and that anyone who entered the Labyrinth wouldn’t be able to escape either. Why not just lock the Minotaur in a prison? Doesn’t have the same ring to it, I guess. It’s a weird idea though, isn’t it - making a really complicated (but still solvable) puzzle and putting something you never want found or freed in it. Why not just make something actually unsolvable?  

So that’s the first/most famous labyrinth. Herodotus, a Greek historian who was kicking around in the 5th century BC also wrote about one in Egypt. He wrote a book called Histories which Wikipedia bills as the founding work of history in the Western literary canon (I initially misread this sentence and thought that they were saying it was the founding work overall and I was about to be all ‘ah, beaucoup problemo, Wikipedia.’ But a quick reread saves me from from making an embarrassing mistake). ANYWAY, in the second volume of Histories, Herodotus recounts his travels around the far flung and exotic land of Egypt. According to Herodotus:

This I have actually seen, a work beyond words. For if anyone put together the buildings of the Greeks and display of their labours, they would seem lesser in both effort and expense to this labyrinth… Even the pyramids are beyond words, and each was equal to many and mighty works of the Greeks. Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids.

Ancient Origins dot net says:

It was named ‘Labyrinth’ by the Greeks after the complex maze of corridors designed by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete, where the legendary Minotaur dwelt. Yet today, nothing remains of this supposedly grand temple complex – at least not on the surface. The mighty labyrinth became lost to the pages of history.

It was actually a mortuary temple, not a labyrinth in the traditional sense of looking like a maze, but it was sprawling, complex and difficult to navigate.The only other Greek historian to see it was Strabo. He was kicking around ~500 years after Herodotus but also reported that the labyrinth was pretty crazy, calling it a “great palace composed of many palaces.” He said:

[I]n front of the entrances are crypts, as it were, which are long and numerous and have winding passages communicating with one another, so that no stranger can find his way either into any court or out of it without a guide.

Apparently the temple was lost over time - Wikipedia is blaming Ptolemy II (who apparently married his sister so that gives you a sense of his respect for preserving the integrity of things like historical sites and the integrity of blood lines) for its ‘demolition’ but he died in 246 BCE so, if he’d destroyed it, how would Strabo have been able to see it in the 1st century CE? It may not have been completely destroyed - it sounds like they perhaps just removed a bunch of limestone columns and blocks.

Fast forward to 1888: a British archaeologist named Flinders Petrie is excavating the site - of his findings he writes: there was nothing but a “vast field of chipped stone, six feet deep... All over an immense area of dozens of acres, I found evidence of a grand building. From such very scanty remains it is hard to settle anything." Petrie also apparently found a bunch of papyrus scrolls - including some which contain parts of the Illiad!

So there was definitely something there. Imagine this though: people found Herodotus’ writings ages ago and are searching around in the sand based on 2,000+ year old testimony from a man who many of his contemporaries considered at best a gullible exaggerator and at worst a liar. 

There was an expedition in 2008 - they have a website talking up their geophysic surveys of the area but they might not have found much because the results page of their website was never completed.

There’s a really weirdly specific Wikipedia article dealing with the (figurative) presence of the Minotaur in HoL - obviously some HoL superfan wrote this article (and it is interesting) but I don’t know why it warrants its own stand alone article - it’s not unusual to have a separate article discussing the themes and motifs of a major text on Wikipedia, but this is a whole article discussing a single motif. ANYWAY I like the analysis in the article about how if the house is the labyrinth, the Minotaur is the awful thoughts that crowd around you as you explore the endless hallways - obviously these are different for everyone. SO the Cretan labyrinth was built because Minos didn’t want to kill the bull - that was its purpose. What is the purpose of the labyrinth in the house? (That’s really why I’m still reading.)

UPDATE: have given up on House of Leaves - it’s on the bookshelf and never coming off. I am a quitter. Feels amazing.

#House of Leaves #mark z danielewski #egypt #herodotus #minotaur #labyrinth

[i-am-very-very-tired]

View r/LateStageCapitalism in the app because you deserve the best. CONTINUE or go to the mobile site Log in / Register r/LateStageCapitalismyoutu.be👢 Bootstraps PURE IDEOLOGY: 15 Things Poor People Do That The Rich Don’t u/ExpediteTheSearch 37 Comments79 Best Write a comment ExpediteTheSearch • 65d Poor people watch a lot of TV Poor people eat fast food Poor people buy clothes or products that are on sale Poor people wake up later than rich people in their early years Poor people are really into sports Poor people don't shower as often as rich people do Poor people blame others for their misfortunes Poor people have no money saved Poor people use credit cards or take out loans for useless things Poor people tend to have more kids and earlier in their life Poor people do not do regular checks with their medic Poor people spend money before they get it Poor people surround themselves with other poor people Poor people never follow through on their ideals or potential Poor people believe that others should help them reach the top 32 Arbitraryandunique • 65d Poor people believe what rich people say 34 drtmstr • 65d I honestly lost it at #8. I can't even. 19 gluedtothefloor • 65d It would be hilarious if it were any bit self aware. 11 drtmstr • 65d I think the word here would be "Tragicomic" 5 gluedtothefloor • 65d Yep, that seems about right. 6 DrippingYellowMadnes • 65d Poor people have no money saved Do you know what the word "poor" means? 12 Sitiak_ • 65d The reason the poor are poor is because they don't have money I now understand why the word tautology was created. 6 okmkzProportionately Representative Cheese Segment • 65d The first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club 9 minivergur • 65d I hate this. 6 [deleted] • 65d [removed] 1 AutoModeratorFULLY AUTOMATED • 65d Your post was removed because it contained a slur. If you wish to have your post reinstated, please edit it to remove the slur, and then report this comment (it will not be automatically approved when changed). If you want to know why you can't use slurs on LSC, please read this. If you don't know which word was a slur, you should have a message from me in your inbox with the word contained. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. 1 ruaidhri • 65d This is some bullshit. Most of their "points" can be boiled down to one central theme, that is, Poor People are personally responsible for being poor. It follows from this that they believe poor people deserve to be poor. Of course this is the central ideology in the religion of modern western individualistic capitalism. This is the successor to Protestant predetermination as a means of seeing who is worthy. Obviously most people in this sub will know this is bullshit. A significant amount of modern wealth is inherited wealth. Another significant amount of wealth arises from systemic and structural inequalities in the world- someone born in the global south will have a much lower chance of being wealthy relative to someone born in the US or Western Europe. And of course, let's not forget wealth that is extracted from the labour of others. Also the site that produces this video is incredibly weird. www.Alux.com is the largest community of Luxury & Fine Living enthusiasts in the World. Alux a world-wide recognized Authority when it comes to ranking the most expensive things in the world It's a wealth fetish site. It just lists "the most expensive " as if something being expensive makes something worthwhile in its own right. I can guarantee you that no one who is actually wealthy looks to them for their advice. Burn it to the ground and salt the earth after it. No good can grow on this ground again. 42 Aeriku • 65d Man this video is a shitstorm of half truths. I could poke holes into any number of points. 15 omfgforealz • 65d Not watching the video but the thumbnail is from that comic that actually doesn't blame poor people from being poor and does a good job of creating a narrative around the privilege of wealth 16 ruaidhri • 65d It's the exact opposite message of the video. You were right to avoid it. 5 Corporal_SaltJohn Brown did nothing wrong • 65d If poor people want to stop being poor then they need to stop hanging around with other poor people! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 28 JuliaB2016 • 65d bc money is transferred from person to person through osmosis. LOL 17 CheatcodekEnviromental Socialist • 65d That's what they mean by liquidizing assets, right? 7 okmkzProportionately Representative Cheese Segment • 65d wealth is a communicable disease 6 mutley89 • 64d The thing is, they are basically admitting here that their stuff about society rewarding "the best" and "hard work" is bollocks. The people you know and live amongst makes a massive difference to the opportunities you have in life. 3 AbortusLuciferumAnti-capitalist, Anti-fascist • 65d Poor people are born out of other poor people. Rich people usually have rich parents. We thought this was false, but looking into it we found out it's in fact true. The uncomfortable truth is that it is much easier to be rich when you have rich parents, due to things like inheritance and property inheritance. Poor people usually don't go after these benefits, you'd be amazed how little money and property poor people pass on to the next generation. Thank you for watching Aluxers! And remember, your dreams are yours to take! 13 ShawnManX • 65d This video was very helpful, and helped me come up with some solutions to these problems that I feel could ultimately help everyone escape poverty. Let's make poverty a thing of the past! Encourage people to install an add blocker and go outside more, going outside is expensive so I think this could be an argument for a basic income. Sounds like poor people don't have enough time to cook for themselves, probably because many of them are working 2-3 jobs. Again a basic income would empower poeple to drop one of their side jobs, and use that time to cook their own meals. Bonus, there are now more jobs available so unemployment goes down! Again, a basic income would help the poor buy new clothes, rather than those on sale. I'm starting to think this whole video is a propaganda piece for basic income. This is part of a cycle caused by stress, where financial insecurity causes stress, which leads to poor sleep, and a disrupted sleep cycle makes sleeping at regular times more difficult. Can also make people more unacceptable to illness. Another argument for a basic income, as well as public healthcare. Sports are expensive to go out and do, so while poor it makes sense if you're into a sport to stay home and watch it. With a basic income people could more readily go out and do the sports they love. This stems from disrupted sleep cycles, and working too many jobs. Basic income. Blaming others is fair when you have been dis-empowered. This is terrible advice because for lots of poor people the only solution they have control over anymore is suicide. Basic income gives people an out other than running into traffic/jumping off a bridge. Basic income Basic income Access to birth-control and safe abortions. Public healthcare Basic income Well duh, the rich people don't want to hang out with the poor people. Basic income so they can pull themselves out and make some rich friends. Or at least the friends they already have won't be so poor. This is mostly due to a lack of resources, basic income. Well how can you expect them to help themselves, give them a tool to help them and watch what they achieve. I think they're hinting at basic income again. 10 DrippingYellowMadnes • 65d Poor people never follow through on their ideals or potential Woman who invented the fidget spinner isn’t getting anything 7 minivergur • 65d Donald Trump is wealthy and watches a ton of TV 3 neubs • 65d That's his job now though. How much TV do you think he watched in the 70's and 80's? 1 minivergur • 65d I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic but idk, maybe more, maybe less? 4 93re2 • 65d It's noteworthy that the image the video has before you start playing it was taken from a webcomic that made the point that a person's level of wealth is to a large extent due to a complex web of circumstances far outside their sphere of control. You can see the original here. http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate 5 frugalgardeners • 65d You all should Google Tom Corley and his research on "poverty habits". He literally makes a living discussing how poor people are to blame for their misfortune. 4 zwirlo • 65d Sure, that's what poor people do, but if "rich" people were raised in poor households, they would form the same habits. Early life environment and education dominates how successful one will be in life, and how their life will turn out. It's one reason why people with rich parents have kids that end up rich, in addition to the financial support to get a good education. 5 romjpnEmployment is part-time slavery • 64d Their website is pure trash with headlines like this : This Summer Dress Made of Straw Hats is The New Trend Because Hats for Your Head are so Last Season Michael Jordan’s Converse Shoes He wore at the ’84 Olympics Sold for $190k at Auction It's just a product from their marketing department to go viral (negatively or positively). Pure BS. 3 minivergur • 65d I'm really sad that they use this comic for the caption of the video because it's actually a really good explanation of privilege 3 GravitySkies • 65d So the thumbnail image they have is from a comic illustrating the differences between rich and poor, and how poor families often don't have the resources to help their children grow up to become successful. Don't usually comment on this sub but jesus fucking christ. 3 BugsHaveProtein • 65d I didn't think a video could make me so angry. I feel like I'm about to be pitched a pyramid scheme. And the fact that they use such an amazing comic strip as their thumbnail makes it even worse. 3 geniusaurus • 64d Aw man I thought this was going to be sarcastic, but nope pretty sure there are some hideous monsters that believe this shit. 😧 3 Tristanmalo666 • 65d A couple of the points are valid but then they come out with the "They buy clothes on sale" 4 minivergur • 65d Which points in particlar did you agree with? 7