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#things are different in america
bongosinferno · 2 days
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A devastating and confusing thing about the Fallout setting, when you explore the pre-war aspects, is what the creators think about pre-war America. In the first games we only get hints of the pre-war world, but they seem to be some sort of wild fascist nation invading Canada. In Fallout 1, the first thing we're introduced to of the pre-war society is seeing a soldier shoot civilians and laughing.
Now, for the first 2 games and New Vegas we don't really know much. What we know is that there's a fascist military group known as the enclave who were a sort of US deep state even before the war, and that the government teamed up with corporate interests to preform vaguely MKULTRA-ish experiments with the Vaults. Basically, the government was an extreme version of the 50s American jingoism and McCarthyism.
This is well and dandy, I guess issues come up more when we get to the later games, especially 4, where it seems like none of this extreme plotting and societal civil unrest which would exist is seen. The society as presented in 4 also seems quite progressive, gay people are featured in the opening, and none of the baggage of say, civil rights not existing are included. Now on a baseline, I don't want settings to be more conservative, homophobic and sexist etc., but it becomes a very confusing setting when it's displayed both as this jingoist extreme thing with fascist tendencies aswell as a progressive place where everyone is seemingly equal. If you're focusing on the 50s as your setting, and American nationalism in the 50s, then you can't have McCarthyism spoofs and anti-communism as a societal paranoia norm while also general equality is the norm without misunderstanding why McCarthyism and nationalist jingoism is bad. A massive harm done in anti-communist paranoia is how it degrades and vilifies any progressive movements (women's rights, civil rights, homosexuality) as being morally un-American and therefore connected to communism. To ignore this just makes any critique of MacCarthyism and jingoism weird!
Basically, pre-war America in Fallout 4 becomes this both sides thing where America is both pure and equal and white fences in every instance that we see as the player (the intro), while also supposedly being this dystopic MacCarthyist hellscape that's broadcasting gladly about their war crimes in Canada, and wants to root out communism. I guess the only fix for this issue without getting into the fine print like they had to do is just not to focus too much on the pre-war world.
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dayurno · 3 months
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this is somewhat of a vent post & something i said i would not do again but has been plaguing me enough that i think getting it out might feel better. so. has anydoggy else been. Baffled and upset by nora sakavic’s refusal to speak on how terribly aftg has treated its characters of color? with the author of the series coming back with a new book and starting up on her online activity again, and questions of what she’d change about aftg bubbling up, it’s particularly glaring to me that we are all playing this very long game of pretend where we ignore how badly the non-white cast has been treated & her lack of thoughts on it
and i understand not wanting to bring up nicky and thea because people pick on her for it. i’m not trying to discredit nora sakavic’s terrible history of getting harrassed online by aftg fans. but i think it is very cynical, and it is very juvenile, and most of all very cruel, that she gets to ignore the very real ways the books have set up these characters to be hated. i think it’s obvious why the characters who get the most hate are the only canonical characters of color, and i think we do not get to treat this like a deliberate decision on the fandom’s part when the books have put these same characters in degrading and embarrassing and terrible positions in the first place. aftg is not a story about nice characters with clean pasts, but there is a very specific nastiness to the only characters of color being a brown man who sexually harasses and later assaults the main character, a black woman whose only scene is her lashing out at her love interest after being ignored for the first two books, and the japanese villain who gets maybe two lines of complexity before he goes back to being a terrible person. the white cast, in comparison, while not at all free from flaws, are never shown to commit mindless evil; all of their actions are ultimately justified. the book goes out of its way to give them concession after concession. we know exactly who to side with, because aftg tells us who these people are. does nicky’s assault ever get addressed in the books? does riko’s reasoning to be the way that he is ever gets more than briefly aluded to? is thea reserved even a shred of humanity or grace in her one scene?
anyway. it’s been years of talking about this and the fandom has been constantly hostile to criticism in this regard, and more recently any criticism at all, and it’s Grating to be on the other side of this discussion. it’s exhausting to know that in ten years we do not get even an acknowledgment besides the author saying she will not answer questions about nicky and thea anymore. it’s upsetting and it’s ugly and i wish no one had to talk about this again, but we do because what i thought was common sense has been washed away by a sudden influx of no-nuance adoration for the trilogy. basically i hope we all explode
two hours later edit: you're allowed to reblog this! sorry about the confusion
#this has been so upsetting to notice but 🥹whatever#there is a different kind of bitterness to thinking about how ten years have passed#and we are getting new content that changes and maybe even rectifies many of the ways we see and interact w aftg#and none of it not a bit of it addresses the racism#how it’s been ten years and the only thing we really get to show it is a book about a ship between two white men the fandom came up with#after seeing them be Suggested to interact in canon#i understand not wanting to hurt nora sakavics feelings by asking her about this#but imagine how tired we are. Imagine how tired we are#do you know how bad it feels to read through nicky’s worst moments in aftg#and know that he was written this way because he looks like me?#do you understand how exhausting it all is. can you imagine?#the fandom has been so quick to undo the criticism fans of colors have been making since day one#and for what. for what! my doves. for what?#have we come out of it any greater? have we done anything but lie to ourselves?#and anyway this is not some mindless pessimism#this is not me telling you that aftg is bad and you cant love it; cant have it mean anything to you#this is me saying that when we acknowledge these things it makes us better readers and better people#nora sakavic if you are reading this from whatever hellhole america you find yourself in#grabs you by the shoulders. This is not the end#this is not something to sit back and feel bad about#you have opened the floodgates of hell with tsc. kick the door in and release a revised version of aftg#there is a real material way for you to make this better. it is possible and it will not kill you#i would read a revised aftg. my mutuals would. many many many many fans would#making mistakes is not just a human right its a human inevitability#but we do not have to let ourselves get defined by them. We can do hard things#lets go of nora sakavics shoulders. anyway. where were we#aftg#txt#tsc
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dykefaggotry · 2 months
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I'm ngl I get raising awareness but seeing ppl draw like. cutesy fanart of their faves waving palestinian flags feels so dystopian & a little disrespectful/tone deaf. or posting about how "fave character from x show would support palestine" like. there's no problem imo w still participating in fandom while bad things happen in the world but it just gets very odd and tone deaf when we start crossing them over. like there's people dying, I really don't know that it's appropriate to bring up how glup shitto would oppose that. maybe you as your own person can do that on your own perhaps? without making it about fandom? like idk! it's just odd behavior To Me.
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mango-sideburns · 9 months
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My fav thing about TAZ is that any aspect out of context sounds fucking bonkers.
Like, in the balance finale there's a scene in which Garfield (who is very specifically never described visually bc most people imagine him as like. The Lasagna Cat. Who in this universe is the most powerful warlock in the realm and also has a hobby of cloning people, which is great for the one character that got forced into haunting a mannequin) is summoned by an alien spaceship that runs on the power of friendship so he could beat up some flashing balls. In D&D.
And that was just. Such a normal scene in the narrative. No one blinked an eye. I would like to bow down to Griffins clear unmatched talent for making me feel such big emotions over ridiculous shit like a goddamned umbrella or a regular ass pair of jeans or the idea of a taco recipe.
#taz balance#the adventure zone#taz#i have. so many drafts of this post decontexualizing so many different scenes.#merle killing a room of autism creature looking things by asking them to tell the truth which then summons god#also merle retiring from his retirement to run fantasy margaritaville under the title Earl Merle#magnus the mannequin telling taako and merle to find the baby voidfish bc the big voidfish sung at him real hard bc in the century he#just now remembered (bc hes a mannequin not a human boy)#he gifted an alien jellyfish with dozens of shitty wooden ducks. he forgot that century bc his friend fed the jellyfishs baby a book#the gnome version of Teddy Rucksbin turns out to be the universes most competent spaceship pilot. hes also a talented opera singer#a man named Barry Bluejeans is dead and uses his ghost haunting powers to gift the three heroes badges that they cant see#right before theyre shuttled off in a cannonball to save a space lab full of kitschy elevators thats snowing pink tourmaline#barry also uses his ghost powers to hold hands with magnus and make random shapes in midair like a dresser when theyre trapped in a#fantasy version of The Dating Game hosted by ghost Jesse and James Rocket who steal bodyparts if you lose their game.#or like in campaign how a dude who wiped out in the first three seconds of ninja warrior convinces a human wifi router#who owns a bible theme park to take the apparent King of America to the white house on their hovercraft to be trued for treason#after he announced his intent to take over the country in a televised debate with an inuit goddess who is sometimes trapped in the body#of an HR worker all Donald Blake/Thor style#anyways. this show is ridiculous and i love it So Much
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magnetothemagnificent · 3 months
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"Superman is better than Captain America!"
"No Captain America is better than Superman!"
Shuttup, they are kissing.
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spartanlocke · 3 months
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Quick disclaimer: Fuck Biden, I hope he rots in hell.
That said, I know trying to convince tumblrinas to vote is like trying to herd stoned cats, but this is too important not to share here.
I know how you feel, I don't fucking want to vote for Biden either, but I need you all to understand: Every vote abstained is a vote for Trump. AND ZIONISTS ARE COUNTING ON THAT. THEY WANT YOU TO STAY HOME SO TRUMP WINS.
They know he plans to fire and jail his opposition, they know he plans to give himself full military power and "total immunity", that he wants to extend his presidency beyond four years. They know all this because he's literally bragged about it with his shitty "Project 25." (Please please PLEASE for the love of GOD do some research on this before giving your takes.)
They know this and they WANT IT. BECAUSE THEY KNOW HE WILL SUPPORT THEIR ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE EVEN MORE AND IF HE GIVES HIMSELF COMPLETE POWER, THERE WILL BE NOTHING WE CAN DO TO STOP THEM.
Zionists don't want you to vote, so get Get the fuck out there and vote.
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uncanny-tranny · 7 months
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I think another aspect of conservative thought people need to understand is the idea that it's all about dominance.
The reason why sayings like "we don't want to trans your kids, we want trans kids to live" is because, in the conservative mind, you are replacing their dominance with your own. It can never be about what is best for others, it is always about expressing absolute power and control.
Natural selection, at its ideal, will weed out the people who "shouldn't live." If their existence is a threat to the already-established hierarchy, then it's obvious that they shouldn't exist in order to challenge hierarchy.
While this certainly isn't a "conservative-only" mindset, it's a trend I have noticed more in conservative spaces. This is why I don't always think it's helpful to go on about how, "Oh, we don't want to threaten your worldview. We just want people to live 😊". You will fundamentally be threatening their power in their minds. Therefore, nothing you say can truly take away from the anxiety, fear, and anger at losing control that may be instilled.
#politics#transphobia#transphobia tw#used the whole 'we want trans kids to live' because i personally think it's a good example..#...but isn't the sole example of such...#...take for instance the gay marriage debates from the early 2010s...#...'if we legalize gay marriage it's ONE STEP CLOSER to them taking OVER america and legalizing [horrible thing]!'...#...that is the anxiety of Losing Control and Losing The Divine Hierarchical Power Bestowed To You Personally By Gd Himself...#...i'm not saying all of this to dissuade people from educating people. but i want people to be aware of this dynamic...#...and to decide if they can (or should) personally go up to bat for others to educate people...#...i don't think you will go very far if you try to educate people without understanding on SOME level how their thought process will be...#...because it is likely that you are educating somebody who is going to see the world VERY differently...#...and they will often interpret what you are saying VERY differently than how you intended it to be interpreted...#...again while this isn't solely a conservative issue (believe me i KNOW) i notice it much more in those spaces...#...and since i am in spaces that WANT to educate people about this i think it is apt...#...it isn't a bad thing to want to educate. but again it's not helpful to just assume others are going to interpret you the way you want...#...it's definitely why i stopped making so many posts about educating others. i just don't think i can do it well...#...or at least in a way that doesn't Feel Threatening (even if it Isn't A Threat)
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froody · 9 months
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youre very anti american until someone from another country says something bad about america. you do realise how hypocritical you are? (coming from an american)
First of all, I’m anti-America not anti-American. This country is wicked from its foundation, on an institutional level. Which I do lot deny and speak about honestly.
I like Americans, I know, crazy. We’re a resilient people, fundamental good resides in most of us. I believe that about all of humanity but Americans are who I know. I love my neighbors. I love my community. The people I love live here, mainly. I wish the best for all of us. I think we deserve to live lives without constant fear of violence and political unrest, with access to resources without discrimination. We are all done a disservice by this country, not in equal measures, mind you. I want to make this country a better place. I do not consider myself a patriot, not a nationalist, I swear fealty to the people and landscape around me.
You’re right, it is hypocrisy to lash out at people who speak negatively about the establishment I despise. It isn’t productive. It’s a knee-jerk reaction. It is extremely frustrating to see people from other countries, mainly Europeans, some Canadians, mock American society for problems that permeate their own government and culture that they refuse to address. Because it is easier to condemn stupid Americans than it is to begin to acknowledge that their country is built on the same white supremacist ideals, that the picturesque stately homes that dot their countryside largely would not exist if not for colonization and slavery. It is easier to imply that Americans deserve to live in constant fear of gun violence and homelessness for their own stupidity than it is to have a deeper compassion for the American people, than to admit that what is happening to us could possibly happen to them. They are not in any meaningful way helping us, they are not helping themselves, not their countrymen.
Europeans, if you think that the people of your country are smarter than Americans, are more enlightened, less bigoted, less violent, more rational, I beg you to look around. I beg you to witness Italy and it’s current slide back into fascism, I beg you to look at the antisemitism rising in Germany once more. I beg you to address the xenophobia in your own country, to look at the transphobia, the malefactors sneaking into your government to roll back your rights and resources.
Also if this is in response to me commenting on British food looking yucky, I want you to know I’m not walking that back. I think I’m in my right to have a little fun poking cheeky fun at British food since British people post about how shocking American food is so much of the time. That was in good faith. Not that deep.
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which egg would treat the masjid shoe racks as their own personal shoe store (because we cant wear shoes inside the masjid we put our shoes on a shoe rack outside the door and SOMETIMES you can get your shoes stolen, so its like a meme where ppl take pictures of the shoe racks and post them with the captions like "going shoe shopping")
Ramadan mubarak! (Sorry that this is so late in the season)
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randomwords247 · 8 months
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Today on things I have realised have been american-ised in Hilda that I didn't notice before: The walk signal.
Idk if I would've fully realised before going to the states on holiday but america does these bad boys way differently
Firstly, I've never heard anyone call them a walk signal. Pedestrian crossing or zebra crossing, or just "Green man".
Secondly: The signal's are different
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Usually its a guy standing or even a bike coloured red, and when you can go? It's a green man walking - Hence, green man. Idk how common the bike is off the top of my head but its not always there
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This is typically what they look like. The pole with the button you press has the green man, and sometimes there's also a traffic light (upper photo) with the green/red man.
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Sometimes they look like this, but typically it looks like the photos above
It's not important or anything, but I think it's interesting how many little things are different, like them calling jumpers "sweaters" or the side Johanna drives being swapped. Small changes from the original british comic that add up to be a little odd to see at first, but are pretty darn nifty to notice and talk about. I don't know if I would've fully clocked it as american/canadian before I went there and experienced the different signals in person
I just think its Neat
(also these photos are taken from google images. Before anyone thinks they can dox me. Its very dark outside I couldn't take a photo of these if I tried)
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hella1975 · 8 months
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all hate to tiktok for taking 'having a space to more openly and actively talk about different cultures' to mean 'cultures are NOT to be shared and we must be vigilantly defensive of our cultures for fear of appropriation, a word that can be applied to any multicultural interaction'. like of course cultural appropriation is a very real problem but ive seen with the access to global multicultural conversation that tiktok provides it's made people TERRIFIED to even interact with cultures other than their own for fear of 'doing it wrong'. like at some point you have to acknowledge that in the real world of the great outdoors, the majority of people are eager to SHARE their cultures. yes there are ignorant questions and biases but also... how do you think those things get unlearnt? i dont understand how deciding that multiculturalism is an elephant in the room instead of a normal thing that should just be talked about and lived with is supposed to benefit anyone? and kids on tiktok are CONVINCED that it's a time bomb of a conversation to have and therefore must be avoided at all costs but like. people generally LOVE their home and their culture and are PROUD of it and want to share it. how have we made it so that showing genuine interest and a desire to understand something so integral to a person's identity is now feared and borderline demonised?
#thinking about this a lot lately. thinking about how fun it was comparing cultural differences in america#thinking of how when i was homesick one thing i found a great comfort in was talking about my home#and how it differed and i really loved and appreciated it when people would ask me about england#in a way that they genuinely just wanted to learn about it and not to take the piss#thinking about how the kitchen at work has chefs from all over europe. we have an irish chef and a spanish chef and an italian chef#and one of the kps is from eastern europe (i havent actually been able to find out where yet) etc and the way they banter with each other#like usually chefs are Problematic bc their humour is VERY abrasive and usually offensive#but this is one instance where it's actually to their benefit bc they're so unafraid to ADDRESS THE FACT THEY HAVE DIFFERENT CULTURES#i feel like the tiktok gen are so petrified of even acknowledging other cultures let alone discussing them#that it's actually sending the conversation backwards. like how does hoarding your culture and pretending it's not there benefit anyone#LET ALONE YOU AND THE CULTURE IN QUESTION. idk it just baffles me a bit that something that started as people on tiktok#genuinely spreading information and talking about the BAD side of this where people DO culturally appropriate or invade spaces that arent#theirs has now become 'for fear of speaking bad about it we will not speak about it at all'. and they'll crucify you if you do. like what#even at uni my best mate is indian and she's too scared to join the sikh society on her own so i regularly go to the events with her#and im typically one of the handful (or the only) white non-sikh there and i get SO welcomed each time#like there's such a genuine excitement to share the culture with someone who is effectively a blank slate#and like yeah ill ask 'dumb' questions or i'll have different experiences (tried a samosa for the first time at one of these events#and the moment that info got out i had like five STRANGERS trying to give me different samosas to try and it was genuinely such#a laugh bc yes they were TEASING me bc 'how have you never had one' but they were also really eager to share MORE as a result)#ugh idk what im saying. i just think it's a shame to watch this happen in real time on the internet#when if people would just go outside and actually TALK to people from other cultures they'd realise 9 times out of 10 the interactions#are actually really really nice for BOTH parties. and actually refusing to talk about this stuff is long-term pretty fucking detrimental#and it also goes the other way!!! like imagine if i - citizen of colonisation motherland herself - didn't interact with other cultures#and didnt ask questions or hear their opinions on whatever shared history we have from THEIR POINT OF VIEW#imagine the kind of shit id be internalising bc i only hung out with other white british people. it wouldnt matter if i was doing it#to be woke or 'respect their culture'. it would still be fucking ignorant. like half my interactions with other cultures#see me as the butt of the joke bc of this like aforementioned irish chef at work VOCALLY slates the english all the time#but it's done in an environment where we're FRIENDS and it's poking fun at each other while still addressing a very serious history. like??#idk if any of this is worded in a way that makes sense but yeah. i have thoughts#cant believe i got inspired to make an actually serious post bc of the CHEFS AT WORK. embarrassing. no one let them see this
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quietwingsinthesky · 3 days
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sometimes interpreting media through a shipping lens enhances it, on occasion even beyond the author’s original intent, but sometimes, you do have to accept that your ship was not in the heads of anyone making the source material and trying to force it to fit into evidence of your ship will severely hinder your ability to discuss the actual text.
#and also ill hit you on the head with a brick#posts that. im not going to say theyre about destiel. im not going to say that.#and im not gojng to say it because. i dont need to. you already know <3#and to be clear: its not the interpretation thats a problem here. thats the fun of shipping. its then taking what youve interpreted and then#trying to backread that onto the media itself as intentional. as intended.#dismissing the actual themes and story for evidence of a ship is the problem. u get me?#shipping brainrot is not ‘oh i think these characters would kiss for this reason’.#its ‘this show is and has always been about these characters kissing no matter how much i have to ignore about the show to make that true or#pretend is completely different than its actually presented or straight up make things up to make my ship be a part of the intended reading’#thats the brainrot. the brainrot is when u step off the train of reality.#this is not true about the best piece of art ever made Captain America and the Winter Soldier. btw. that movie IS about bucky and steve#kissing alsjfdjskdjg#(<- okay im being silly here but id like to make a real point here too. the thing about TWS is that. it is genuinely enhanced by a romantic#reading. its not *better* than a platonic one. its just different. being able to see it through that lens does make a lot of the original#movie’s ideas even more complex. case in point like: steve struggling with his dating life. because what shared life experience does he have#with other people who look his age. and the movie is. about. someone who has his shared life experiences. and his mission to get bucky back.#you can see how that lens would be beneficial to the original movie rather than fighting it to prove the ship works in opposition to the#author’s original intent.)
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oifaaa · 1 year
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So are all American paperback books just terrible quality or is it just the ones I keep accidentally buying
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samijami · 8 months
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The way republicans talk about women, black people, trans people, gay people, and non-Christian religious groups is sickening.
Whenever a woman does something 'wrong' (in their eyes), like the judge who recently indicted this black guy, they emphasise 'female' when describing her. If they forgot to originally, they go back and restate their entire sentence just to add in 'female'.
And the way these assholes say 'female' just has this..dehumanising tinge to it. And when you hear one of them say the word, you immediately cringe in pain at just how disgusted they sounded, despite how badly they try to hide the tone of voice behind normalcy and mixing it in with the sentence. It just always sticks out.
And for black people..there's a heaping wad ton of shit here, so I'm not going to name it all off. I didn't even name off nearly as much as I should've for the women part.
But let's just say, Steve Bannon, the asshole running that republican TV show..he publicly stated to 'feel proud of being racist', and that 'Martin Luther King would be proud of Trump'.
And when they're 'defending' a black person? They highlight that that person is black, repeatedly. If that person were the victim, they wouldn't mention race, and they haven't plenty before. They're just doing it to look good.
We all know what republicans are doing and has been doing to trans and gay people..there's way too much to that. Main point of this entire thing is: they're actively taking away their rights and passing laws to kill them, hence we being on the edge (actually we're in one) of a trans genocide right now that can lead to a full-on queer genocide.
And then, for non-Christians..why don't the cultists of 'God' slap on a 'cult' label to every other religion? Why not hate Muslims and instantly look at one and think 'oh that's a terrorist'. Say they side with Jews, when in reality, they despise them for not praising 'Jesus'. And some weird other argument for each and every other religion..'they're traitors to our country'.
Well, this isn't your fucking country. This shithole that already fucking sucks has become a living hell with republicans existing. Why not just fucking kill us? Oh wait! YOU'RE ALREADY DOING THAT.
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