#stop throwing buzzwords around!!!

[greenconverses]

oh no, no, nonononononono you don’t get to retcon the first series basically being an all white cast because now you’ve realized it’s Not A Great Look by blaming publishing standards and pretending that annabeth is presented as anything other than a blonde white girl in the text or any of the marketing material ever.

you wrote her as white! you wrote all the main characters as white and made it very clear when the secondary characters weren’t! it’s fine to admit you just had a blind spot and self-corrected with HoO and the other series!!! you don’t get to go back and retroactively collect diversity points by pretending annabeth is in any way presented as racially ambiguous in the text now that you’ve decided to make a tv show!!!! gaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

#I am beefing with this riordan take and this riordan take alone #you don’t get extra credit for something you didn’t do in the fucking first place!!!!! #see exhibit a: JKR and black!hermione #I absolutely think it’s wonderful that they cast Leah and that she gets this great opportunity #but they don’t get to go back and pretend that he ALWAYS intended to write annabeth as anything but a white blonde girl #YOU DIDN’T DO IT DEAL WITH IT #stop throwing buzzwords around!!!

[fiona-fififi]

...

#really fucking wish people in this fandom would stop throwing around whatever fucking buzzword is their favorite at the moment #in order to shame every goddamn person who has a slightly different interpretation of a character #love how in the past two and half seasons of this show i (as a bisexual woman by the way) have been accused of #being homophobic for reading eddie as bi or demi instead of gay #being misogynistic for not fawning all over lucy constantly (and i don't even dislike her i was just slightly critical of her introduction) #and now biphobic for both thinking buck could have behaved better on their date AND for being slightly critical of tommy #while actively expressing love for both characters #this fandom is so fucking exhausting honestly #911 discourse #911 negativity #i guess #except it's not about the show it's about the fandom

[autumn-foxfire]

I've noticed this rising trend in fandom where we're becoming more protective of female characters from complaints rooted in misogyny (which is great! I'm not contesting that) HOWEVER in doing so, more people are getting upset at any complaint about female characters even when it's valid criticism.

It sucks but the truth of the matter that most of the time, the female cast aren't written as well as their male counterparts and as a female myself, I'm allowed to be upset by this and discuss it. When we're discussing a female character like this, we're not blaming the character, they're just a product of their writing, we're trying to draw attention to the misogynistic ways male writers can end up writing female characters.

For example, there is nothing wrong with a caring female character, it only becomes an issue when that character is only there for the sake of her male cast members instead of just being her own person with her own development. More often than not, female characters are used by these authors more as plot devices than characters. For minor characters it doesn't matter as much when this is the case for both male and female characters but more often than not, it's the main female leads of a story who are treated this way while their male counterparts get to have their own stories and agency.

Not all criticism of female characters are rooted in misogyny and I wish fandom would stop throwing around this word.

#fandom #more often than not when I discuss bad writing of a female character #I'm doing so because I'm disappointed and wanted more for her and feel like the author has let her down #let's stop excusing bad writing and throwing around buzzwords to stop these conversations please

[mars-ipan]

honestly being mentally ill and trying very hard to advocate for the mentally ill feels like a constant fucking battle sometimes

#marzi speaks #marzirants #just thinking abt it no inciting incident #but like. i remember being a little kid and telling all of my classmates to stop calling themselves ‘ocd’ bc that wasn’t how ocd worked #(i recently learned that my mom’s side of the family (my uncle especially) had obsessive-compulsive tendencies and that fighting felt like #it had a purpose) #a few years ago i learned more about psychosis. i stopped calling people ‘psycho’ and begged everyone who did to stop as well #that was tiring #now ‘narcissist’ is the buzzword of the year people are throwing around willy-nilly #and now i have to explain to people that NPD is not ‘villain disorder’ #godddd. can people like. stop trying to call people mentally ill when they mean bad #please. pretty please. please i am so tired of having this conversation my entire life

[spacedykez]

online discourse is so stupid. i hate discourse.

#the otter splashes #'you're a bad person if you support this' 'you're a bad person if you don't support that' #just shut UP #there are a few exceptions but mostly its just. no. shut the fuck up. stop throwing around buzzwords. fucking EXPLAIN yourself #can you just sit the fuck down for two minutes and actually have a CALM DEBATE without accusing the other side of being awful people #can you stop reducing nuanced debates to two sides. can you stop making everything black and white #discourse

[kindnessoverperfection]

Please, if you can, take a moment to read and share this because I feel like I'm screaming underwater.

NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) stigma is rampant right now, and seems to be getting progressively worse. Everyone is using it as a buzzword in the worst ways possible, spreading misinformation and hatred against a real disorder.

I could go on a long time about how this happened, why it's factually incorrect (and what the disorder actually IS), why it's harmful, and the changes I'd like to see. But to keep this concise, I'll simply link to a few posts under the cut for further reading.

The point of this post is a plea. Please help stop the spread of stigma. Even in mental health communities, even around others with personality disorders, in neurodivergent "safe" spaces, other communities I thought people would be supportive in (e.g. trans support groups, progressive spaces in general), it keeps coming up. So I'm willing to bet that a lot of people on this site need to see this.

Because it's so hard to exist in this world.

My disorder already makes me feel as if I'm worthless and unlovable, like there's something inherently wrong and damaged about me. And it's so much harder to fight that and heal when my daily life consists of:

Laughing and spending time with my friends, doing my utmost best to connect and stay present and focused on them, trying to let my guards down and be real and believe I'm lovable- when suddenly they throw out the word "narcissist" to describe horrible people or someone they hate, or the conversation turns to how evil "people with narcissistic personality disorder" are. (Seriously, you don't know which of your friends might have NPD and feels like shit when you say those things & now knows that you'd hate them if you knew.)

Trying to look up "mental health positivity for people with npd", "mental health positivity cluster bs", only to find a) none of that, and b) more of the same old vile shit that makes me feel terrible about myself.

Having a hard time (which is constant at this point) and trying to look up resources for myself, only to again, find the same stigma. And no resources.

Not having any clue how to help myself, because even the mental health field is spitting so much vitriol at people with DISORDERS (who they're supposed to be helping!) that there's no solid research or therapy programs for people like me.

Losing close friends when they find out, despite us having had a good relationship before, and them KNOWING me and knowing that I'm not like the trending image of pwNPD. Because now they only see me through the lens of stigma and misinformation.

Hearing the same stigma come up literally wherever I go. Clubs. Meetings. Any online space. At the bus stop. At the mall. At a restaurant. At work. Buzzword of the year that everyone loooves loudly throwing around with their friends or over the phone. Feels awesome for me, makes my day so much better/s

I could go on for a long time, but I'm scared no one will read/rb this if it gets too much longer.

So please. Stop using the word "narcissist" as a synonym for "abusive".

Stop bringing up people you hate who you believe to have NPD because of a stigmatizing article full of misinformation whenever someone with actual NPD opens their mouth. (Imagine if people did that with any other disorder! "Hey, I'm autistic." "Oh... my old roommate screamed at me whenever I made noise around him, and didn't understand my needs, which seems like sensory overload and difficulty with social cues. He was definitely autistic. But as long as you're self-aware and always restraining your innate desire to be an abusive asshole, you're okay I guess, maybe." ...See how offensive and ignorant that is?)

Stop preventing healthcare for people with a disorder just because it's trendy to use us as a scapegoat.

If you got this far, thank you for reading, and please share this if you can. Further reading is under the cut.

NPD Criteria, re-written by someone who actually has NPD

Stigma in the DSM

Common perception of the DSM criteria vs how someone may actually experience them (Keep in mind that this is the way I personally experience these symptoms, and that presentation can vary a lot between individuals)

"Idk, the stigma is right though, because I've known a lot of people with NPD who are jerks, so I'm going to continue to support the blockage of treatment for this condition."

(All of these were written by me, because I didn't want to link to other folks' posts without permission, but if you want to add your own links in reblogs or replies please feel free <3)

#actuallynpd #signal boost #actuallyautistic #mental health awareness #narcissistic personality disorder #people also need to realize that mental health professionals aren't immune from bias #(it really shouldn't come as a shock that the mental health field has a longstanding pattern of misunderstanding and mistreating ppl who ar #mentally ill or otherwise ND) #the first therapist i brought up NPD to like. literally pulled out the DSM bc she could barely remember the criteria. then said that there' #no way I have it because I have low self-esteem lmaoooooo #anyway throwback to being at work and chatting with a co-worker. and the conversation turning to mental health. and him saying that #he tries to stay informed and be aware and supportive of mental health conditions & that he doesn't want to be ignorant or spread harmful #misinformation. and then i mentioned that i do a lot of research into mental health stuff and i listed a bunch of things. which included #several personality disorders. one of which was NPD. #and after listening to my whole ass list he zeroed in on the NPD and immediately started talking about how narcissists are abusive and #he knew someone who had NPD and how the person who had it had an addiction and died from the addiction in a horrible way and he #was glad he did #fun times #or when i decided to be vulnerable and talk abt my self-criticism/self-hatred bc i knew my friends also struggled w that and i wanted to #support them by sharing my own coping methods. and they both(separately!) started picking and prodding at my npd through the lens of stigma #bc i'd recently opened up to them abt having it. they recognized self-hatred as a symptom and still jumped on me for it. despite me #trying to share hurt vulnerable parts of myself to help them and connect with them. #again..... fun times

[jew-flexive]

like i love y’all, i do, but good god, goyim need to stop calling any bad behavior fascism. someone using a slur does not automatically equal fascism. non-fascists use slurs. using a private jet does not automatically equal fascism. non-fascists fly in private jets. fascism is a specific political ideology and methodology. not every asshole is a fascist. not every capitalist is a fascist. assholes and capitalists suck and are detrimental to society, but they aren’t fucking fascists.

#yes this is about taylor swift. #is she a huge pollutant? sure. #is that awful? absolutely. #is she a literal fascist? no what the fuck #like white liberals will literally throw around the word fascist like it’s nothing #that isn’t helpful!! #this is also about anyone who gets cancelled on twitter #sometimes people are just fucking assholes #if you need to call them a fascist to disagree with what they’re saying/doing #maybe you’re not as educated/progressive/sensitive to minorities as you think you are #stop using buzzwords to describe bad behavior. be specific.

[theerurishipper]

Just saw a post that said Adrien is a love bomber... are we really throwing buzzwords around for the sake of salting on Adrien, the abuse victim? Love bombing is an emotional manipulation tactic, and it is usually paired with the cycle of abuse. Adrien is not abusive. He is not emotionally manipulating Marinette. He is showing her affection. I guess we're demonizing showing our loved ones any sort of affection now...

Yeah fr, people will throw around all kinds of words istg. This is the definition of love bombing:

Love bombing is a tactic in which someone “bombs” you with extreme displays of attention and affection with the intent to manipulate you. Although being showered with "love" can seem positive at the beginning of a romantic relationship, love bombing can lead to gaslighting and abuse. Psychologists caution it might be a tactic used by a narcissist or sociopath in an attempt to control you.

Anyways, Adrien doesn't do this. In fact, this is what Gabriel does to Adrien. From this article:

In a relationship with a pathological predator, love bombing is combined with intermittent reinforcement to create a sense of instability and longing in the victim. Intermittent reinforcement (in the context of psychological abuse) is a pattern of cruel, callous treatment mixed in with periodic affection. The abuser hands out rewards such as affection, a compliment, or gifts sporadically and unpredictably throughout the abuse cycle. This causes the victim to perpetually seek their approval while settling for the crumbs of their occasional positive behavior.

This is exactly what Gabriel does. Whenever it seems like Adrien is rebelling against him because he is tired of Gabriel's neglect, Gabriel will offer him a little concession. Adrien is rebelling against him? Fine, let him go to school. In this way, Adrien doesn't rebel against his father anymore, and Gabriel can keep him under his control, because now Adrien will continue to believe the best of his father and will continue to try and earn his love. Another example is in Gorizilla. Adrien gets tired of Gabriel stopping him from seeing his mother's movie, and sneaks out. Later, Gabriel allows him to watch the movie, and throws in a little bit of gaslighting in there, essentially blaming Adrien for not being open with him and making him feel guilty, when it's his own fault his son didn't open up to him, which is because he's a neglectful asshat.

This is Gabriel and Adrien's relationship. Adrien stays with his father and tries so hard to please him, because Gabriel has instilled in him that love is something conditional that is to be earned. And whenever it seems like Adrien is breaking away from this mentality, Gabriel will do something "nice" for him, which will bring Adrien right back, because he's an abused child who wants to believe the best of his father and wants his love and affection.

Again, to quote the article:

As author Adylen Birch writes, “Creating fear of losing the relationship and then relieving it periodically with episodes of love and attention is the perfect manipulation.” Much like the way a gambler at a slot machine becomes addicted to playing the game for a potential win despite the risk of major loss, a victim in the abuse cycle can become attached to the idea of getting a return on their investment in the relationship despite the toll it takes on their well-being.

There's actually an example of this in the show. From Illusion:

Adrien: Speaking of which, Dad, I'm not really comfortable with having my face on all these rings. That's actually why I didn't want to be a model anymore, to avoid that. Do you understand? Gabriel: Of course, I understand, my son. But that's the point; it's just an image, it's not you! And since this image frees you from your obligations, we, the Agrestes, are able to spend more time together. But if you'd rather everything went back to the way it was before, just say the word. Adrien: (wears the Alliance ring on his index finger) You're probably right.

Gabriel even explicitly says what he's doing, which is holding the threat of going back to their previous relationship over his son's head to emotionally manipulate him. To refer back to the article, he creates the fear of losing the relationship in Adrien, and then makes a big deal of showing that he cares so much about Adrien and his future, and he makes him breakfast. This is love-bombing. And so, Adrien goes along with whatever Gabriel wants as long as he doesn't lose it. And so, he continues to do what Gabriel wants, which is to accept the Alliance rings and his image being used in ways he doesn't want. And true enough, Adrien goes back to defending his father after he finally worked up the courage to confront him for his shit in the beginning.

Adrien: My father? But Nino, he's changed, he's making an effort, and it's the first time he's coming to school!

I could go on, and there are several examples of this in the show, but then we'd be here forever. But I highly recommend that article. I just read it, and it is literally Gabriel and Adrien, oh my god. It's very informative and I think we should all be aware of this.

But anyways, back to your question anon (sorry for the tangent). Adrien doesn't love bomb. Adrien is just very affectionate. He doesn't withdraw affection from anyone, he doesn't make them settle for scraps. He doesn't try to manipulate anyone, he doesn't gaslight anyone, he doesn't try to make them seek his approval. Adrien is always kind and loving towards everybody he cares for.

In fact, Adrien does the exact opposite. He fawns over others, and he tries to earn their love and approval. This is because of Gabriel's abuse. And to accuse him of love bombing is so disgusting. Honestly, people just throw those words around like candy. But then again, I've seen what the side of the fandom that might have said this usually says, and it's usually the same victim-blamey abuse apologist rhetoric, so I'm not even surprised.

Thank you for your ask!

#MLB #Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Chat Noir #Gabriel Agreste #Meta #My meta #Asks #ML Fandom Salt #Abuse tw #Abuse cw

[zahraaziza]

stand on business or stand down

stop while you're ahead and do me a favor.

yes, you, sliding into all of those people's inboxes, harassing them and moaning about something along the lines of

"what is flooding xyz tag gonna do to help stop a war?"

"what is me buying from xyz brand, you say we're supposed to boycott, gonna do to help anyone?"

"you people are just simplifying this whole issue, it has way more nuances"

"you all are diluting the actual meaning of zionism, genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and occupation, when actual zionism, genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and occupation are actual atrocities to be taken seriously, however you guys are just throwing around these buzzwords to draw attention to an issue that is way more complex than what you're making it out to be"

and the richest and most thought out one of them all, "stop caring so much about this bs and keep writing fanfiction".

first off, ain't no activist or person with a conscience is gonna read allat. take that inferiority complex of "my poor existence is so insignificant, who am i to bring about any change" elsewhere. yuck.

those oh so "very well rounded" and pseudo "diplomatic" and "neutral" takes can go right back to where they came from, thank you very much.

instead of wasting so much air, to put your "articulate" thoughts on genocide into words, that we definitely "have never heard before", cause they're just "that original", grow a backbone?

who do you think you are, to be schooling palestinians on their suffering at the hands of the self admitted far right zionist extremist israeli regime, on what "real" zionism, genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and occupation is?

besides, the only thing you are doing is showing everyone how unbelievably lazy you are, to do the bare minimum there is, to reading up on the events in palestine and the ones, which have lead up to them.

you have all the necessary tools at your disposal, but are so full on privilege and your "higher conscience", that the suffering of a people who don't look like you, couldn't bother you.

by all means, do whatever it is, that helps you sleep at night, but don't you ever lull yourself to comfort, thinking that your neutral stance will go unnoticed.

your silence and neutrality, that the zionist entity is feasting on, will be remembered.

#free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #anti zionisim #free west bank #important #israel #save gaza #save palestine #free gaza #zionistterror #zionistcensorship #israhell #gaza genocide #genocide #gaza strip #gaza #gazaunderattack #save west bank #west bank #tlou #abby anderson tlou #ellie williams tlou #tlou2 #abby tlou #ellie tlou #palestine #icj genocide case #the last of us #the last of us 2 #[♡ᵎ] 𝐳𝐚𝐡𝐫𝐚 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐬

[baskeigh-ball]

Ignoring the fact that ibis had the ai paint feature a couple years before this whole ai fiasco, after seeing your post, I decided to try it out to see if it really held up. I already knew what you said made no sense, as even stuff like ai painting requires heavy human input that isn't just someone typing a prompt in a thing and looking through thousands of images and somehow still calling it 'art'. Really, it's just some weird advanced bucket.

The ibis ai paint... really sucks. I'm pretty sure it hasn't even been touched since it was added. No matter what I did, I got random colours and whatever colours I had put there looked like it were from a filter, not to mention how my lineart bled everywhere like it was blurred out.

Ibis isn't problematic for adding that feature as not only was it added ages ago, but it was also just a gimmick only added because a few more popular paid programs added them, like Clip Studio Paint. I highly doubt even the company took it seriously considering how poorly built it is. This is actually the one time I'm glad some feature in an app sucks so much.

Another reason why ibis isn't problematic by the mere feature alone is that, when you look at the artists making content during the time of that update, it was received with humour. It was something fun to try, but ultimately dismissed for actual artwork, as nobody would use it to fully paint their works. Nowadays we see something slapped with the words 'ai' and think that it's instantly bad due to the latest issues with it and big corperations/ certain production companies but it isn't. It's just a lot of people abusing what was previously some fun gimmick, which it can still be, and for certain apps, still is. Nobody throws pitchforks at character ai, after all.

You can tell just by the size of this that I'm procrastinating on something. Ima go and let this rot away in your askbox now lol

You really thought this would fade away in my ask box, mwahahaha /j

I wanna start off by saying thank you for holding me accountable, I will admit that I got buzzworded pretty hard in this situation lmao

This information came as a surprise to me-- I was seeing posts pop up within the past week complaining about the ai feature on ibis, so I assumed it was recent. As it turns out, after reading your ask, I discovered that I got a few wires crossed! Because yes, the auto paint feature I referred to in my post has been around for years now, and was never taken seriously anyways

So that was my bad (and yea ur right it's completely unusable, lmao)

But as it turns out, the feature that people have been complaining about DID come out recently. It was called the AI Example feature, I think the idea was that you make a simple drawing and the AI adds 99% of the detail and color, which I've seen a bunch of other programs do.

...and then it was immediately removed due to some pretty major backlash, which, duh

^ This is the only evidence I can find of the 11.2.0 update that included the AI feature on the actual site; their update history stops at 11.1.0. But there's also the news page about the removal of the update, so it's not like they're trying to pretend it never happened.

So tl;dr, I jumped on the hate train a little too quickly and never did enough research to figure out what the actual update was, and that it's been removed by now anyway (which I couldn't have known until today, ofc, but i did kinda post that thing about ibis today so it's still a pretty major oopsie)

I think I can say with confidence now that I agree, ibis paint isn't problematic to use-- they made a mistake with this update, but they actually listened to their users and removed it LITERALLY the next day. So, thanks for letting me know! I'll also edit my last post to prevent any misinformation, just in case people make the same mistake I did :]

#its a big relief that i dont have to learn how to use an entirely new art program anyway #so this ask came as a pleasant surprise #asks open #ibispaintx #now i just gotta hope i didnt get anything else wrong about the update

[dramarising-replacement]

desperately wishing the staff would stop catering to the users who can't handle narrative themes that are more challenging than blues clues. "our clans are supposed to be the good guys, we're supposed to root for them" says who, exactly? I've seen at least a dozen lairs with lore where the entire clan is dead and the lair is a ghost town. theres even more where the clans are blatantly evil, even though you have to be super careful how to write things otherwise you get your account nuked. stop relying on media to hold your hand and tell you how to feel with 0 personal interpretation.

this site lore has no believable conflict, or any at all at this point, and it's impossible to even try taking it seriously. you can't even say the brewing process actually melts the shit you throw in the pot because the idea of throwing a cricket in there to get some goop is too traumatizing for the userbase, apparently.

nothing can ever be remotely bad, ever. there's a thing called "nuance" and a very loud portion of the userbase, undel and rat mod just cannot wrap their fuckin' heads around it. it's tiresome. fiction isn't reality and not every fuckin' thing is a dog whistle or propaganda or whatthefuck ever the newest buzzword is idk ya'll are too ridiculous to keep up with anymore. log off and eat some oatmeal.

TLDR: please at least attempt to read or watch 1 thing that isn't intended for preschoolers before you start shitting up the tags with your deep intellectual analysis of what you think "problematic" media is, based off a twitter thread you read once.

#Flight Rising #Lore

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

so...

this was a post in the anti catradora and anti catra tag. i'm not gonna address the crosstagging and i'm not gonna mention the op's url, i just wanna address the post specifically.

is catra morally grey? i don't think so. having a tragic backstory does not make you morally grey. in that case, belos from toh would be “morally grey” since he clearly was a victim of religious trauma and had a complicated relationship with his brother. firelord ozai from atla would be “morally grey” because his father most likely treated him the same way he treated zuko and azula. azula would be a “morally grey” character because she was abused.

but that's not what being morally grey is. it's not about being mistreated or having gone through trauma. grey morality is about actions, not motives.

Urban Dictionary's definition of the term is,

“Morally gray is a character who does too much bad to be a good character, yet too much good to be a bad character. A character who is in between good and bad.”

does catra really do too much good to be a villain? i don't think so. she has a few sympathetic moments but apart from that, she's mostly on the side of evil. she revels in hurting people and shows no remorse, she puts herself first in almost every situation, she supports the horde despite knowing what it was doing, she sees every situation as an opportunity to get what she wants, she even makes plans for the horde's attacks. she never shows regret in having participated in the war and only does one (1) good deed after she is backed into a corner and has no escape from horde prime.

y'all need to stop throwing around buzzwords without knowing what they mean. catra could better be described as a complex or sympathetic villain. but she was a villain nevertheless.

entrapta was morally grey, double trouble was morally grey, even scorpia could be considered morally grey. "fucked up and gay" certainly suits catra better, and she does not stop being fucked up at any point lol.

#also the fact that a lot of the comments and reblogs were like #“omg yall did her so dirty” “catra was hated so much for no reason” #when 99% of the fandom coddle catra and refuse to admit that she's a bad person #its funny honestly #c//a stans really want to act as if their character is this niche and overhated person that only a few people understand #spop #spop critical #spop catra #spop criticism #spop discourse #spop salt #anti catradora #anti catra #catra #she ra

[poisonheadcrabsalesman]

Tell me something Miller gave up

Do you ever think about media and stories reflecting the anxieties of the cultures that create them? Or how sci-fi sometimes predicts or inspires technology? Do you ever think about Halo and Aliens and Starship Troopers and disaster movies and real life and

I poured my brain out onto a page stream of consciousness style so it's a mess, but a fun, terrifying one I hope

hi

-

There's a lot of buzzwords people throw around. People saying one thing but meaning seven different things. The difference between sacrificing and giving up. Victory at any cost, pyrrhic, hollow. A play for time.

Sacrificing something is good and noble and for the greater need of the many. Giving up is cowardly and shameful. These words are black and white, most of the time. Other words like risk, are more complicated. A risk can pay off or it can put everyone in danger. A risk can be a sacrifice or it can be worse than giving up.

Miller's from a generation that doesn't know what it's like to live without war. To live without the threat of surveillance, both foreign and domestic, enemies listening in or sacrificing privacy for the greater good. Some planets get labelled with the words too, once they're glassed. As a kid, Jared thought it was strange to think anyone gave up their planet, their home, or that somehow the planet gave up. It was the bad guys.

The bad guys are scary and if they find you they will kill you. They destroy your homes and your way of life. They might eat you! They speak a different language and have technology that can kill you before you can blink. That's why you need to be careful and a good citizen. The UNSC is doing its best to keep the colonies safe, but if they would just listen then the bad guys wouldn't get them. That's why you can help be a good citizen and fight the bad guys. All you have to do is sign up when you're 16! You can be a marine or a pilot or drive a tank or maybe even meet one of them. The UNSC needs you, but also it is doing great on its own! The war effort requires everyone! But do not panic, panicking is weak and cowardly and helps the bad guys.

The bad guys are unstoppable, but also weak and stupid. They can't stop the UNSC's greatest weapon.

The Master Chief is a hero and he stops the bad guys. There are other Spartans too and they always win. They never give up. They never die.

Miller enlists. He works hard. He's an asset, not a drain. He won't give up.

The war ends. The news around Master Chief quiets. Miller becomes a Spartan IV. There's always still more work to be done. There are different bad guys now. Some of them look like him.

Miller learns that not every alien is a bad guy. There are asylum seekers on multiple worlds, even Earth. Refugee is another word for asylum seeker.

Miller's in an early enough class of IVs to become a mission handler. He works intelligence and planning. He keeps his head down and ears open. He learns more than he wanted. Sacrificing children. Giving up homes? Childhoods? Giving up requires a choice in the matter. He thinks about it. Sacrificing also implies a choice.

IVs have a choice. He was an adult when he signed on. To be a Spartan. He was still under 18 when he joined the UNSC but that's okay. He knows other Spartans who are in the same boat. Other IVs are older. They have even more skin in the game, they've been fighting the bad guys longer.

The bad guys have changed but that's okay because while they're strong they're weaker than Spartans and Spartans never die. Except Miller has lost Spartans. He's seen whole Fireteams wiped out in an instant. He's heard people dying on worlds a million miles from home for no clear reason.

The bad guys are there because the good guys- the UNSC - are there. Spartans are the UNSC's gun they point at the bad guys. Some of the bad guys are humans again. Some of the aliens are good guys. Why is there still a war? Why do they need Spartans for this? Manufactured conflict.

Sacrifice or giving up? Wasted or Spent?

#asks #zitasaurusrex #my writing #Halo #Spartan Miller #this gets tags bc i think people should look at it

[cbk1000]

Not to keep belabouring this point, but as we are now in Election Year, this is your friendly reminder that I don't give a fuck what you think about Biden. I don't care how you feel about his administration's response to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I don't care if you think he's too old, not progressive enough, etc. etc. etc.

The reality is that, unless something major changes, either Trump or Biden will be elected to the presidency in November. Our voting system is deeply flawed and deserving of criticism. But nothing magical is going to happen between now and November. There will absolutely, categorically, be no other viable choice, no third-party candidate, no perfect leftist wet dream that swoops in at the last minute to make you feel tingly in your moral purity. Unless one of them dies between now and then (and even if Biden does, guess what: the Dems aren't going to put up the Ideal Progressive as their candidate), you will get Biden, or you will get Trump. If you think you are Doing Something for the Palestinian cause by helping Trump to get elected--and that is what you are doing if you throw a tantrum and abstain from voting in a race that current polling indicates is going to be sphincter-clenching tight--I have a bridge to sell you very cheap.

However poorly you think Biden is doing, what do you think a second Trump term is going to do, domestically and abroad? Trump has consistently and regularly praised various dictators and authoritarian strongmen around the world. He admires them. He wants to be one of them. That is who we will have if Biden is not elected. You will actively harm not only vulnerable people in the U.S., but those outside this country who will be affected by the policies of Putin's biggest stan.

You need to hold your nose and vote. I am genuinely sorry that is the reality of our broken election system, but it IS the reality, and ignoring that will do far more harm than voting for Biden. Everywhere the Republicans hold power they are pushing anti-abortion legislation, they are banning books, they are trying to prevent teachers from talking about racism, they are denying trans people access to medical care. If you want to see that at the federal level, then go ahead, don't vote. And then shut your fucking whiny mouths about the Progressive Cause, because you don't even care enough about it to make the most basic effort to try and stop the people who are actively harming all those minority groups you only advocate for in online echo chambers where you think you can get a rimjob for being a good little progressive who uses all the right buzzwords.

#politics #trump's voters will show up #make sure you do too

[iwonderwh0]

If there's one thing to thank anti hankcon discourse it's for the folks around their thirties gathering to tell the teens that they are, in fact, adult enough to decide for themselves who to fuck with and that they do, in fact, find older people attractive.

(And also collectively asking folks in their teens-to-early 20s to stop using the word p*dophilia when talking about literal 30+ years olds.)

Like really, throwing this words in relation to adults downplays its actual weight in its actual fucking meaning, and this is really scary. Age gap might be a controversial topic but not anywhere near it is a matter of comparable scale to what the word ped*philia stands for. Don't turn this word into a buzzword, I'm begging you.

#I think it's like when you're 5 years old #all the 8 years old feel like they're just infinitely older #then in your twenties 3 year old difference is absolutely nothing #The further you're away from being a kid #the less of a difference it makes #10 years difference between 10 and 20 years old is abso-fucking-lutely not the same as between 30 and 40 years old #even though it's the same amount of years #and the same way it's hard for a 5 yo to comprehend that for adults three year old gap is barely a difference #(as it is literally 60% of their life) #here it's perhaps something similar. #I'm in my relatively early twenties and I too feel like I wouldn't date a person who's X years older than me #but in ten more years I don't expect myself to think the same way anymore #as it wouldn't make that much of a difference when it's not 50% of my lifespan anymore #I still don't think I'll find myself in a relationships with someone significantly older #but it would be wild to think that people in their 30-ies aren't old enough to make their own decisions. Let's be real #in this day and age #after you've been an adult for some time #there isn't this much of a power imbalance anymore between you and people who are X years older #or #the same kind of imbalance can be found within the same age category but not due to the age anymore #but things like social class. #Hell #in this sense 30yo can be the one overpowering 50yo.

[iwouldservehim]

At this point I don’t know how many of the people making awful arguments against Rhaenyra are plain stupid, or manilupating facts on purpose/acting with willful cluelessness, and I stopped making a difference.

But to have seen all this uppity, condescending ‘criticism’ about how Rhaenyra should have done better by being a pious and obedient woman enough, and having children with a man blonde enough, and ending it with a flourish about how “burr burr bastards bad” by name-dropping the Blackfyre Rebellion... and not see a single bulb going off about how they prove all their “criticism” is turned to dust by that instead of a big gotcha!

The Blackfyre Rebellion concerns a woman most pious, most obedient, most innocent, most suffering in silence and doing her family duty, who has a most blonde son as her very blonde husband King... and she is accussed of adultery and said son of being a bastard. Only because there was another likewise blonde dude sitting close by that treated said woman in a better way (the bar isn’t even high) than her rapist ‘unworthy’ husband AND likewise because Daeron, just as Rhaenyra, wasn’t conforming to his own (man’s) gender expectations. And so a lot of greedy or bigoted people rubbed their hands at being able to weaponise moralistic buzzword to get theirs (like the whole bunch of you).

Literally NEITHER Daemon Blackfyre or Daeron were even bastards - Daemon was literally legitimised; and don’t go ‘eheheh, but Naerys-’ literally didn’t want to fuck ANOTHER guy, she wanted to be a Westerosi NUN. But either party would throw around the same bullshitting attempts at brainwashing with hidden bigotry behind pretense rightousness to further their own agendas and whatever they deemed was the more beneficial endgame for their own political interests.

If you had any brains or honesty at all, you’d compare Daemon and his supporters trying to depose Daeron to what Aegon and the Greens did to Rhaenyra. Even if Daemon is legitimised, he is Daeron’s younger brother. And he and his party are betting on literally the same hate for gender nonconformance, and throwing around insidous comments about a woman’s sex life, and how it makes her child subhuman.

If Rhaenyra was the most well-behaved and selfless of women, and had the blondest of kids, she would just be Naerys, because the system they live in doesn’t EVER EVER EVER award this glorified duty, sacrifice and compliance - at best, it takes advantage of their convenience. They would have literally easily spilt tales about how they are Daemon’s bastards given their Kingdom wide suspected history and the fact that he’s the next close male relationship around her and also being such a “good, sweet woman” in this scenario comes with a sprinkle of a “this feeble, simpleminded thing wouldn’t even have the ‘manly’ qualities needed in a leader, tsk tsk”, because it has always been about stealing the throne by people who wanted it for themselves, who were always known to want it for themselves, and finding some reason or other for it.

#asoiaf #hotd #anti hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #aegon ii targaryen #daemon blackfyre #daeron ii targaryen