#this is for economics so I'm not entirely sure why we're doing it

[syxnewt]

I finally drawn the big bad for the comic I've been dreaming up and he's so adorable to me so because we're friends promise don't show anyone else he's top secret

(Ignore the words I drew him on my homework)

#those weird ear flap things are because he is a demon along with the single huge eye #I'm thinking he can swap it out for a mouth if he wants to be scary but he mostly communicates telepathically #anyway I love him even though he sucks major ass #ALSO actually this picture is crunchier than a poorly made tuna fish sandwich so sorry about that #I couldn't get a clear image without zooming out a lot and I doubt you care about social media influencers that much #this is for economics so I'm not entirely sure why we're doing it #hopefully the teacher explains tomorrow cuz she wasn't here today #my art #LOOK AT MY POST BOY #shadowbuilt

[qqueenofhades]

i do genuinely hesitate to ask, as i am sure i will find out more than i meant to in time, but atm my various feeds and an uninformed google are not telling me what most recently exploded about the british government, so if you have the time and the inclination i'm agog for your summary/take

HOO BOY. It has been a Things Exploding In the British Government day to the extent that in the hour-odd between my previous post and this one, I had to go back and check if anything ELSE had exploded while I wasn't looking. Everything that they are currently denying will probably be confirmed within the next 12 hours or less, though, so nobody get too comfortable.

Anyway, we all remember how Liz Truss succeeded Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, met the Queen, the Queen immediately fucking croaked which honestly was the funniest time she could possibly have done it, the country ground to a total halt for ten days, and then when it got going again, Truss and her chancellor (aka finance minister, for those of you happily ignorant of British politics), Kwasi Kwarteng, proposed a Thatcherite wet-dream economic plan of unfunded massive tax cuts for rich people, because something something Stimulate Growth. We are also generally aware that this crashed the pound through the floor, blew up people's mortgages and other mildly important bills, and did nothing to deal with the actual energy bills/cost of living crisis currently engulfing the UK. Oops.

After absolutely everybody, including the commie socialists at the Bank of England, screamed OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU MORONS DOING???, and the day after Kwarteng insisted he would absolutely remain in post and he had 100% confidence in the Plan, he... got sacked for creating this, the Plan that Truss had asked him to deliver and which had won her the Tory party members' election. This made him officially the second-shortest serving chancellor in UK history aside from the guy who literally died in office. Womp womp. That will be a pub quiz answer for you. You're welcome.

Having spent all this time hiding from the press, then giving eight-minute press conferences during which you could literally track the pound crashing in real time, and performing more U-turns than a dancing dashboard hood ornament, Liz Truss took a break from her busy schedule of conducting the Economic Disaster Waltz in the key of B Fucked to appoint Jeremy Hunt as the new chancellor. Jeremy Hunt is mostly notable for being a Tory who can put his pants on without assistance and being a genteel failure at all the previous cabinet posts he's held, which is why he is now regarded as a "safe pair of hands" in a party that has dissolved into a lot of shit-flinging coked-up gibbons who can only scream BREXIT BREXIT BREXIT and IMMIGRATION IS BAD!!! (Side note: they recently had to cancel a festival designed to "celebrate the freedoms of Brexit" due to logistics issues associated with, you guessed it, Brexit. That is not directly relevant to the current clusterfuck, but it is too funny not to include.)

To nobody's surprise, Jeremy Hunt then ripped up the entire economic plan and offered a new one, which was not measurably better than the last one but at least reversed some of the most egregious cuts, and which made everyone ask if Liz Truss had been tied up and duct-taped in the boot of a Range Rover and/or if Hunt had secretly staged a coup with the help of Larry the Downing Street Cat and taken over the government. Probably nobody in the Tory party would mind very much if he had, because they were all busy either planning how to oust Truss or publicly denying that they were indeed planning to oust Truss. One of the popular names for her successor? Boris Johnson! No, I am not making this up. Maybe this has all been a horrible dream and we're going to wake up and find that BoZo is back in charge, after massive public scandal for being a serial liar, which he had been from Day 1, finally made him resign. I repeat, what even the hell is going on here. Nobody knows. Meanwhile, Hunt is warning about even more budget austerity and "eye-watering" cuts to public services that can least afford it, because the last decade didn't result in quite enough preventable deaths for the Tories' tastes, and because they have been forced into this by a car crash completely of their own making.

....anyway. This brings us, more or less, to today. Yesterday, Truss refused to commit to protecting something called the pensions triple lock, which guarantees that old-age pensions (the UK form of social security) will rise in line with inflation, costs, or earnings. A) Inflation in the UK is now at a whopping 10.1%, and B) given as old people are literally the only demographic still willing to vote for the Tories, this miiiiiight seem like an even more unnecessarily stupid and self-sabotaging idea. Sure enough, U-Turn Number Eight Million was duly performed this morning, and Truss insisted she had always intended for the triple lock to be protected. But would Universal Credit and other welfare/benefits programs also be adjusted upward for inflation? HELL NAH! THOSE ARE FOR POOR PEOPLE! GROSS!

This, however, was only the beginning of the unpeeling of the latest idiot banana. Keir Starmer, riding high on the back of recent polls that have given Labour a 36-point lead and predicted that the Tories could be left with as few as 22 seats in Parliament if a general election was called tomorrow (leaving the SNP as the official opposition), appeared at Prime Minister's Questions and got to shoot fish in a barrel. Truss did not dissolve into a pile of goo on the floor and/or have a bucket of water thrown on her and melt into Margaret Thatcher, so that was taken as a win. Well, at least for two hours or so. Then Suella Braverman, the ex-Attorney General who had briefly run for the leadership when BoZo resigned, and who exists along with Priti Patel in order to prove that in the modern Tory party, women of color can heroically be just as much as awful xenophobic monsters as crusty old white dudes, resigned as Home Secretary. Did you even know she was Home Secretary? Neither did she. She took over Patel's job in a bid to apparently make Patel look cute and cuddly by comparison, as she is even more determined to do horrible things to migrants as much as possible. The official reason given for her resignation was that she sent an official document from her personal email account, and this had something to do with immigration and/or the Office of Budget Responsibility forecast that the Tories have, in the valiant spirit of freedom, resisted actually publishing for any of their current economic plans. CONSERVATIVES ARE GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY!! yell people on both sides of the Atlantic. Oh-kay.

Anyway, Braverman used her resignation letter to blast Truss for pretending that everything was fine and dandy, which means the BUT HER EEEEEEMAILS was absolutely just an excuse and even she wanted off this sinking ship as fast as possible. Grant Shapps is now the Home Secretary. It's not important. The point is, if more ministers start resigning, the government will probably implode just as it did when they deserted BoZo en masse. What the hell happens then? Fuck if anyone knows. Since they will, as noted, get absolutely cosmically annihilated if they call a General Election, the Tories will resist doing that with all their might (the next one isn't due until 2024, which is about 1004329 years away at the current rate that time is passing here). Truss was already elected by a tiny minority of the country (about 160,000 Tory party members). STICK RISHI SUNAK IN THERE AND CHANGE THE RULES AGAIN?? HECK, SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN! KEEP THOSE MUSICAL CHAIRS COMING, CHAPS!

(Also: we will recall the Daily Star's Lettuce Cam, where a picture of Liz Truss has been placed next to a head of lettuce to see if she is kicked out of office before it rots away. It now has a special companion, Tofu. This is because Braverman, just yesterday, gave a speech attacking the latest round of climate protesters as being spurred on by Labour, the Lib Dems, and the "Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati," which she doubtless thought was a very clever line at the time. Because British Twitter is British Twitter, the Tofu: 1, Braverman: 0 jokes have been rife.)

And since we are still not done: tonight, Labour forced a vote on a fracking ban which was being treated as a de facto confidence vote in the government. Aka if the Tories voted for it, they would be considered to be defying the government. Because Britain is a cartoon country run by clowns, the method of Parliamentary voting literally involves walking through Door A for Aye and Door B for Nay. The "whips," or the people whose job it is to assure that party members vote according to the government's position, have thus been known to physically stuff recalcitrant MPs through these doors, because Hail Britannia, or something. So we soon had reports that the anti-fracking vote was, dare I say it, a total clusterfrack, and the Tory whips were literally throwing crying Tory MPs through the Nay door so they would Vote To Support The Government. This sounds like a beginning to a Monty Python sketch, but it is just another ordinary evening in British politics in 2022! (Did Truss herself vote? Or BoZo, Patel, or any of the other Tory big beasts? Nope. Evidently she was "too distracted" with all the other crises going on, which probably means she just didn't want to show her face or she might get killed. Hard to blame her.)

So: the fracking ban was defeated, Labour MPs were like "oh my god the sheer clownery," even Tory MPs were spitting mad, we soon had more rumors that both the Tory chief whip and the deputy chief whip had resigned (currently in the Official Denial stage, so yeah, that will be confirmed before tomorrow morning), and I haven't even mentioned the part where one of Liz Truss's press aides admitted that they used to lie about various relatives of hers having just died so Truss didn't have to do interviews (actual quote: "just aunts and cousins, not any major relatives!"). We all wondered if that wasn't actually a lie but the minor members of the Truss family had voluntarily decided to die rather than have anyone know that they were related to her. Either that or she just sent MI6 after them. It's entirely possible.

#rionsanura #ask #politics for ts #uk politics #i truly cannot explain the magnitude of this clown show #truly #long post

[ftmtftm]

the whole "trans men male privilege" thing basically reveals to me that at the end of the day people's perception of a trans man is "(usually) white guy who has access to hrt, has been on it for 5+ years, has had bottom and top surgery, and won the genetic lottery". like.

what are the chances of someone being this lucky, lets be serious. and don't get me wrong, i'm sure there are transmascs who can not only pass, but are completely stealth. but for the vast majority of us?

not an option. testosterone is a restricted substance, gender clinics where i live have a 5+ year waiting list, and doing it privately is expensive (my brother is currently transitioning completely privately). top surgery costs at minimum £5k. bottom surgery? 2-3x that.

not to mention there will always be those of us who don't want to opt for one of them, or choose not to — and bc of this, it's kinda insane to me to be like, "well, if ur gonna cling to ur agab, why even transition" esp when those specific conversations are not actually "clinging" to it, so much as discussing how our body, and the body we inhabit, is the subject of legislature.

like at the end of the day the assumption is not only "well all trans men pass and are stealth (two diff things!)", but that trans men necessarily always /want/ to pass or conform to a very rigid and narrow image of masculinity. (and some people expect us too as well!)

some of us, we're never gonna pass. partially bc it holds no interest for us to present ourselves differently for said 'privilege', and partially bc we're unfortunately not gonna by virtue of our genetics. and some of us, well, we don't even have access to hrt, or puberty blockers, by virtue of where we live.

legal documents? in my country, your birth name is considered as belonging to the state. any attempt to change your name is already a hefty legal process, and it's actually immediately rejected if you are switching to a name of a different sex, requiring you to change your sex/gender marker first. and to do that? you have to take your parents to court.

yeah. hire a whole lawyer to represent you, file a complaint, have an entire gender certificate, and actually submit your case to a court which can ask you invasive and transphobic questions. it's literally easier for me to get a passport in a different country than it is to change my name with my current one.

Yep!!

You also kind of highlighted it without directly saying it but "[ the hypothetical straw trans man in question ] is USAmerican" is another identity to add to that list of assumptions often being made as well honestly.

Viewing an entire community through the lense of its most hypothetically privileged members will always fuck your perception of that community up. It happens to trans men a lot in conversations like these - and also it happens to trans women a lot in conversations on transitioning and passing and accessibility too honestly, just based on convos I've had with my ex as she's been coming out and building more trans fem community around herself.

Like, in reality, most people aren't able to transition in the ways they want/need to for so many different reasons - though usually because of systemic legal reasons and systemic economic reasons like you've described. Especially in the case of testosterone HRT - which does not have a gray market like estrogen and can plant you in serious legal trouble due to its controlled status.

Ultimately we're all fighting for security within systems that were explicitly not made for us and ultimately we're stronger combatting them together. Hopefully people realize that sooner rather than later.

#asks #anon #transandrophobia

[odd-lee]

My take on Watcher that nobody asked for

I see a lot of people kissing up to Watcher Entertainment and I see even more people trying to burn Steven at the stake, so here are my two cents on the whole situation (even though I have like no relevance in anything I just want to get my thoughts out)

I honestly don't know if I've ever been this emotional about a company making a decision like this, I don't usually get into the parasocial bullshit usually, but I think a lot of people feel a similar way. I feel like Watcher's misstep here is they're launching this like it is a big company launching some sort of product or new feature. I think they're forgetting how personal their work is. A lot of it was designed to kind of feel like banter between friends. It's a pretty personal feeling model compared to other formats. I think that's why they thrived so much, because people kind of felt included. Plus, especially Shane had always been someone who felt like a real, down to earth guy. That was his whole persona. Eat the rich, get up to mischief, just do shit for the hell of it. So overall, it was really jarring and upsetting for people to suddenly feel like they're taking a huge step back into corporate hell. It's not their brand. I don't think they understand that this is going to shift the entire feel of their content. I watch them even though i know a lot of their theories are bogus because they're fun. If I wanted to watch a bunch of psuedoscientists scramble around without the chemistry and with all the jump cuts and cheap out cliffhangers, I'd start watching the History Channel again. They're moving away from being those weird guys in the back of your class you started to talk to because they're funny and moving into Ancient Aliens Corporate Late Night TV show bullshit.

It's super upsetting to me, I know I expected this least of all from them and it kind of feels like a betrayal of their values and brand rather than just a shift into a different stage of creation, which I think is partially why they're receiving such severe backlash. I see a bunch of people talking about the economic implications, and sure, it's definitely a slap in the face for them to claim that everyone can afford 70 USD a year and for Steven to make that kind of ridiculous instagram post where he guilts followers who cannot afford to follow them behind the wall by saying they don't want to follow them behind the wall, but we've seen people do this before. It's almost expected in the corporate world we have going on. But it's just such a fundimental betrayal of everything they branded themselves as that it feels like everything they had before was a lie.

That being said, i've seen a lot of vitriol on the internet towards them. I feel almost personally betrayed and lied to, but I think we should keep in mind that these guys aren't our friends. They're a company. Completely lambasting Steven isn't going to do anything and it isn't really fair. I never really liked him much, he kind of got on my nerves, but the Ghoul Boys are just as responsible for this as Steven is. They're the face of the company, if one of them backed out, Watcher would collapse (as it is now), so I don't think anyone really had any sort of leverage over them to hold them at gunpoint. I don't know who made the decision and pulled the trigger, but we really cannot know how any of them felt about it, and we cannot make excuses for any of them either.

But we shouldn't really have to make excuses either. This isn't a moral issue. It's just a business decision. A bad one that people have the right to be upset about, but it's not like they're spitting on our faces, they're just making some really out of touch decisions as a company. Nobody's a bad person because they're doing this. I'm upset, and we should tell them we're upset, because that sort of feedback is what they're going to listen to. But insulting and villainizing them and claiming this is some sort of moral downfall is just going to want to make them dig their heels in. It'll create hostility between them and us, and they'll no longer regard us as their fans, so they'll no longer listen to us. It's just a company, in the end. We should try to treat them like one instead of like some sort of estranged friend. EVen though it really does feel like a personal betrayal, eugh.

TLDR: I think it was a poor idea, not just because it's kind of financially out of touch but mostly because they rely on a closeness to their community that the paywall will destroy and it makes us viewers feel lied to. But, we should really stop trying to roast them on a spit, they're a company and we should treat them calmly and firmly as such.

#watcher #ghoul boys #steven lim #ryan bergara #shane madej

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e39

"We didn't fucking cause this. We're his legacy." That entire speech from Ashton had big Caduceus vibes.

The necklace that Fearne found was one that Laudna's father gave to her mother on one of their anniversaries. He saved up for it, and got it with three stones to represent the three of them.

Laudna's name was Matilda Bradbury. She "kind of forgot who [she] was" after a while of running from town to town, and used to sing to herself.

oh god I had forgotten about Pate

Laudna's eldritch blast looks like the flame in her chest we saw in the dream realm. When she casts it, she feels what she's always felt — the magic coming from with in her, in her blood and bones, from the weave of arcana within herself. And she proceeds to bonk Ashton in the head with one of them.

"I was born with magic... that's why they [her parents] were so eager to push me out the door, to the castle."

Holy shit, that's one hell of a testament to Matt's character voices being distinct. The cast remembered Ollie's voice after months. The Green Seekers were sent by Shishadri to escort the Bells Hells to Eshteross' estate.

Chetney opens the letter from Eshteross to Shishadri against Orym's direct objection without hearing Orym out at all. I'm sure this will have no consequences in the future

The letter speaks on a couple of his last jobs as a mercenary, recalling the work he's done for her and the good will they have. At the very bottom, it states information about what the Hells are doing, what they've discovered, elements of the Grim Verity and the dangers of the solstice, and essentially says to stay out of their way.

Laudna casts mending on the wax seal Chetney broke. Marisha Ray has committed mail fraud on graph paper in two campaigns in a row

Mistress Shishadri called in someone to cast speak with dead on Eshteross. She has pale, pearlescent skin, powder-white. The hair is long and silver-gray, no eyebrows, with almost elven features but no sign of elvish ears. "Human, but more so — mystical, but like a creepy doll in energy and visage." Her voice is a lot like the eisfurra from the All-Minds-Burn. She wears a pendant of a golden, beaked skull — a symbol of the Matron of Ravens.

"This is the Grave Mystic Weva Vudol. She is a very useful talent when it comes to dealing with the unexpected demise of important individuals."

Her eyes roll back when she casts the spell and the face almost looks like a porcelain mask. There's a weird, sickly sweet joy to her voice as she asks the questions, and when she moves Eshteross' body, it's like moving a puppet.

"When did you die?" Not but a day before. "How did you die?" I was killed by the Legend. "And who was this legend responsible for your death?" The Legend of the Peaks, Otohan Thull. "Were they [the Bells Hells] responsible or involved in your demise?" No. "Do you have any final requests?" To be interred next to Mistress Prudaj, in the Lucid Memorial Mausoleum.

Shishadri asks the Hells to hunt down Otohan (after the Green Seekers turn it down), and offers them a contract, which they accept.

Otohan got that title during the Apex War because of her involvement with the Taloned Highlands and the Apex city Sruwargas, home of the Stratos Throne. The mountains where it resides are known as the Coven Peaks. For the people of the Throne, she was a hero, and for those opposing her, she was a nightmare.

The Stratos Throne holds rulership of the Taloned Highlands, including Imogen's hometown. She vaguely remembers having to hide, fields being burned, strongholds and military installments on the pathways along the mountains.

The death of the previous sovereign brought the Apex War to a ceasefire, alongside the mutual economic destruction that was happening.

Jovahn, Imogen's hometown, is a place where many warriors and soldiers passed through; there were many inns, homesteads, and barracks built for them that have since been repurposed. Otohan could have passed through or stayed here.

Shishadri takes all of Eshteross' letters, and will arrange the Silver Sun for pickup by the morning.

Weva's HP, AC, and levels are all much higher than Orym's. She works throughout the city and the Oderan Wilds, but works for Shishadri. Chetney smells no fey, fiend, or undead essence on her, but her skin is sort of sparkly and opalescent, sort of like that aasimar who was with Kotho back in C2.

She's flirting with Laudna.

She can..... see souls? She says Laudna's "a little dark around the edges... ooh, welcome back."

Pate!!

Keyleth had theories that the attack on Zephrah was a test, a way to test the abilities of Zephrah's defenses, but there was never a second attack.

She would sometimes talk to the deRolos about the leylines, and Orym thinks that that could be related to why Otohan wanted her dead.

FCG tries to identify the toxin residue on Eshteross' weapon. With a 26 medicine check, they recall "poisons, liquids, alchemical concoctions... and you feel with certainty that you have never seen something like this." There is no magic to it, but it's nothing FCG has encountered in the natural world.

This is the second or third time Matt has described something unidentifiable to FCG in this way — he makes a point to say how strange it is that FCG has never encountered it before or can't remember what it is, like it isn't the item itself that's strange but rather their inability to recognize it. So is this a situation where FCG's memory was wiped? Like they used to know about it but can't anymore because their "memory banks" are damaged or altered?

FCG also identifies the blade itself. It acts as a magical club when wielded as a cane, but when the command word is spoken, the ball on top of the cane becomes a scythe blade. It acts as a greatsword.

To the skyship!

But first, some shopping.

They got diamonds for revivify, and FCG got a 25gp commemorative coin. This is likely for divination, which has a material component of a 25gp "sacrificial offering."

To Yios!

It's a little less than an 1100 mile journey, and it'll take 7-8 days since they're going across the Hellcatch Valley again.

Day 1: No issues

Day 2: No issues

Day 3: Sandstorm! Chetney, Fearne, Imogen, and Orym all rolled below a 5 to stay on the ship, but everyone's tied in one way or another to the rails or the masts. No one actually fell off, but they lose a day of travel.

Day 4: No issues.

Ruidus is flaring. The date would be 30 Sydenstar 843,

Imogen is dreaming of her and Laudna baking in a cabin. "The candlelight goes from orange to a deep, deep red. The door is open, and outside the hut, you see a red cloud swirling. The storm is around you, you can hear the impact of it, the hut creaking and breaking apart. You can just barely see a shape walking into the storm, away from the hut, away from you — the darkened clothed shape of what looks like Laudna, walking away from you. Laudna? No response, just keeps walking. You will yourself to move faster, and your feet leave the ground as you glide until you are right at the back of the figure. You touch it, and it spins around, and instead, it is a darkened ruffled cloak. What you thought was Laudna's hair is tattered shreds of a funeral shroud. You see this scraggly hair in a lavender-like color, and that memory that unlocked, you recognize your mother. 'You need to run.'"

"While that's happening, Chetney. Roll a Wisdom saving throw. 6. You've concentrated on this in the past, the curse that you hold. It is tethered to the history of Catha, and the transformations have always been pulled by that massive white-silver glow in the sky. Ruidus didn't seem to have much of an impact. But as you've been more conscious of these flares, there's been this itch in your belly. Simple. But this time the itch gets stronger. And stronger. Until you can't help but try and scratch for it. You scratch and scratch, and you pull, and you tear. Fearne and Orym, you see Chetney begin to double over and clutch his stomach. Chet? Can you talk to me? You have to pull, you have to be free, you have to scratch, it has to be free. From behind, he tears the flesh away from his torso, and as you watch the skin and hair of the gnomish form flop away, the wolven body emerges with an aggressive howl, the eyes emanating a red glow. Who do you go after first? Orym."

Fearne casts daylight on Chetney, which gives him another saving throw against Ruidus' influence. He rolls 16. It has some kind of effect, but it doesn't knock Chetney out of it. (Meaning that 16 is still a fail against the influence.)

"As far as your consciousness goes, you just have to scratch the itch. This is primal impulse and instinct. You've been here a few times, but this is an odd timing."

Liam playing a battle master is so good. the battle master fighter is easily the most complex full-melee class (and is definitely more complex than many casters), and it's so nice to see the class played with such... poise? ease? skill.

Rolling another 16 save gets Chetney out of the influence and the itch goes away, but he's under half health, so he has to make another save against bloodlust, which he fails. Fearne's daylight spell knocks him out of that.

The flare fades away, and the ruddy moon is left dull in the sky.

But before that, back in Imogen land—

"As you see into the face of your mother, she steps back, and the wind whips her away like she was just strips of cloth. You glance up, and you can see through the cloud, the bright, flaring moon of Ruidus. What do you want? No response. Otohan? Are you here? Nobody seems to be present. Just the sound of strong, dangerous wind. [I reach out and lightning strike the hut.] As you reach out your arm, all the designs on your body, the extended tendrils of energy completely fill your arm and the bolt arcs across the outside of the hut. It burns and darkens, and as it burns up, the wind carries it away like the cloak but a moment before. [I fly up into the air.] The dust around you subsides slightly. You can see the darkness, the stars, beginning to come closer. You concentrate on the moon, and a few moments later, the bright light of the flare dulls, and in that moment, your ascension slows, then stops, and you begin to fall. Faster and faster. Faster and faster, you plummet. You spin and see the ground come towards you — and you wake up."

Sending to Liliana Temult: "Are you there?" "...Imogen?"

#critical role #critical role liveblog #critical role c3 #critical role campaign 3 #note watches c3 #critical role spoilers

[cruelfeline]

I've been thinking, for the past few days, about why it's so strange to me, to hear people say that Hordak oppressed people. Or that the Etherian Horde was oppressive. Or just... insinuating that Hordak and his subordinates are somehow in a position of power on Etheria.

And I mean, I've written before about why I find Hordak far more sympathetic than I find the Princesses, but this isn't that. This is more... A disconnect. Between how people seem to view Hordak and the Horde and my personal understanding of oppression. Namely: the sort of "usual" social hierarchy of oppressed and oppressor don't seem to work here.

The patterns don't coincide.

When we look at our world, our societies, social power tends to be divided by wealth. Now, of course race and religion and gender and all of these other factors come into play, but financial resources hold tremendous importance. Members of oppressed minorities are more likely, statistically, to hold less wealth. Not always, obviously. There are no hard rules. But enough that it comes out in data.

And even in societal majorities, there is still the divide between those that hold great wealth, and those that do not.

My point being as follows: the members of the "upper class" tend to be oppressive because they have the financial means with which to exert control. Politically, economically, whatever. They are the ones oppressing, while the "lower class," the working class, tend to suffer under their wants and whims. It's an oversimplication, to be sure, but the general sense of it is all that matters for this discussion.

Essentially: the upper class oppresses the working class. The working class doesn't oppress the upper class.

So!

When we look at Hordak and the Etherian Horde, and when we look at the Alliance... who is working class, and who lives in absolute luxury?

Our protagonists are literal monarchs living in literal palaces with literal magic powers. They don't perform physical labor. They don't have "jobs" in the sense of earning money or earning their keep. And even during supposed wartime, they enjoy plentiful resources and delicious food and pointless luxuries.

The level of luxury is even played for laughs, sort of, when Adora first joins the Horde and has no idea how to live in a room that appears designed around impractical pampering.

But it also just kind of... borders on ridiculous? Like...they go to a magical floating island to relax at a spa. On a cloud beach. During a major war that we are supposed to believe they are suffering tremendously from. We're supposed to feel sad for them. While they're lounging on the cloud beach.

It's... hm.

Compare this to the Etherian Horde. And to Hordak himself.

There are no fancy rooms with decorative waterfalls in the Horde. Not for regular Horde members, not even for higher-ranking individuals.

The members of the Etherian Horde absolutely perform physical labor. They have few, if any, luxuries to speak of. Their entire lives appear to consist of working to earn and maintain their place in the Horde. And there are absolutely no spa days.

As for Hordak? Well, you might say: "CF, Hordak is in an upper class position; he calls himself Lord and sits on a throne and-"

And I'm gonna stop you right there, because Hordak is a purpose-bred slave play-acting a god-monarch to earn back his place as a purpose-bred slave. He and his clone brothers are actual servants of Prime: made to do everything from cleaning to serving meals to fighting on the front lines of Prime's wars. They are true, all-around workers.

Actually, the little details regarding Hordak and "work" are so interesting. Because he absolutely works, in a way that the protagonists really don't seem to: with little to no visible time for relaxation and absolute zero indulgence in luxury. We so often see him in his lab, working with tools, with his hands. And after Entrapta makes him his new armor, we see him using it to perform significant physical labor. Labor that, as "lord," he could likely have delegated to others. But he didn't. Because Hordak, at his core, is a worker.

Now, does he have a throne? Sure! But it's a throne designed to be a tool, a prop of sorts to help him mimic Prime. It's not an actual piece of comfortable furniture. And it's not somewhere where Hordak appears comfortable or leisurely. It's just... a tool of the job. I mean... just look at how he sits in it, compared to Prime. Prime, who is absolutely "upper class" and has all of the fanciness to show for it. Prime who just lounges on his throne, secure in the knowledge that he belongs there.

And beyond the throne, in his Sanctum? Not a drop of luxury to be found. Just machinery for Hordak's work. And tools for his work. And a bunch of junk, because he's pathologically unable to throw anything away for Personal Reasons. Totally unlike, say, Glimmer's room. Or Prime's trophy and dining rooms. We don't even see a place for him to rest from his work, though extrapolating from the pods we see other clones in, we can guess that it's likely not a soft, fluffy, copiously-pillowed bed.

Because that's the thing about Hordak: he's the leader of the Horde, but he's still a member of the working class. He's play-acting a lord, but he doesn't actually enjoy any of the leisure or luxury that comes with that. Rather, despite his position in the Etherian Horde hierarchy, he has far more in common with his own cadets than with his hierarchical equals in Bright Moon.

Which is why the patterning for oppression is so off, for me. People are trying to convince me that a bunch of working class people, including potential orphans and an actual cult-slave, are oppressing the wealthy royals? It just. Doesn't compute. Like... even when Mermista's capital city is destroyed, she still has the means to lounge about in a fancy bathtub, eating ice cream. It just doesn't carry the same weight as, say, Hordak sitting amongst the trash-wreckage of his Sanctum in season four. Mermista is upset, but she's still pampered. Hordak is upset, and he's just... upset. With nothing comforting to help him.

It's just such a disconnect. I can't view the protagonists as "oppressed" when they have the means and resources to essentially avoid any true fallout from the war. While Hordak and his subordinates, supposedly dominant and oppressive, live in spartan quarters devoid of even the slightest shred of opulence or comfort.

Perhaps the series could have circumvented this if it had made our protagonists members of Etheria's less-royal population? Or if it had portrayed them as true refugees, as they are under Prime's aggression in season five. But it doesn't. It has them hanging out in palaces, going to parties and spas, eating sleep-over cake while Hordak gets injured by his glitchy health-care machine because he doesn't have anything better.

Anyway. I don't know if all of this makes sense. It's just. Such a weird thing to me. And makes it hard to see the Etherian Horde as "the oppressors."

#hordak #discourse #I don't know if class is the right word honestly I'm not economically inclined #but something about the difference in lifestyles and means and daily comfort makes the oppression concepts strange to me

[dekusleftsock]

Izuku - the human hero

How perception controls the mind

(quick warning, I put this in a doc and its 15 pages without images. Be warned that it will take a solid amount of time reading. Get comfy)

How to be a hero

Before we get right into the thick of this, I wanted to explain what exactly makes someone a hero. For this, I'm gonna have to explain what makes cops inherently flawed. (This is also gonna get political, so if you like cops and don't wanna read about someone who does not like them, click off now. I'm not afraid to throw around the word "pig" for a non animal. You will be blocked if you try to argue with me. Also I am speaking about this as someone who lives in a major city in the US, so if you, again, try to argue with me, you. will. be. blocked. I don’t care about your liberal opinions)

Cops have three purposes, making people feel safer, making sure major events or protests don't go haywire, and keeping people in the prison system. (for economic benefits that those systems provide. Aka free labor) The thing that separates real life cops from heroes, are that heroes are legitimately needed as they do community service and deescalation along with taking care of villains. (even if they aren't trained on deescalation which I dislike. *cough cough* katsuki *cough cough*) Plus, they are given twice as much training as a cop is, as cops aren't trained on much compared to UA. They have to have a high school diploma, 21 weeks of cop school, and a few rigorous tests. (source)

But let's get back on track. So, heroes do five things as a part of their job. To make citizens feel safer, make sure protests/events don't go haywire, community service, deescalation, and stop villains from hurting people/property. They are put through three years of training at a hero school and pass their provisional licensing exam. It also seems like it's required to take work studies and class 1-A just took them really early. They're also highly regulated when it comes to use of their quirks and detaining villains.

But there's more to it than that. How well you did in your tests for UA is entirely dictated by the people around you. Well not entirely, but we're human. We thrive on other people's approval, because it's in our very nature. We need support, gear, and the right training to be able to do what we want to do in life.

Theoretical, quirkless heroes

As we've established, heroes need three things. They need gear, support, and training. Gear can be anything from a support item that allows their quirk to function (like aoyama's belly lazer) to the quirk itself, like in izuku's case. The thing that stops a quirkless hero is the fundamentals that they lack that the rest of the world already has... according to the able bodied people in hero society. Because, let's be honest here, there is more to getting into a hero school than getting a quirk.

Let's use Katsuki as an example. He had the perfect quirk, perfect financial background, friends, teachers, but no mentor. Though it seems more like Katsuki trained near constantly in order to become a hero. As best jeanist said, he DOES actually have the skills to become a full fledged sidekick already, he just lacks discipline. No mentor. That's what UA is for most people, the time in which they get a mentor. A quirk is not everything, because you need to have the smarts or the empathy for the people you're saving. That is what holds Katsuki back and pushes Izuku forward, empathy.

Empathy isn't really controllable though to some extent, especially if you don't have any to begin with. Katsuki and Izuku both have autism, but Izuku has hyper empathy and Katsuki has low empathy. That just means that Katsuki needs to learn the basic steps of SHOWING empathy as a hero to the people he is saving. Technically that just means he needs to learn how to mask better, but yeah, depending on the job masking can be so important. That's why we even have the innate ability as autistic people, for survival. We're allowed to use it in a way that is healthy to both us and others. But it's OUR choice, not anyone else's.

Getting back on track, most of the opportunities would have been taken away from Katsuki if he had a useless quirk and/or no quirk at all. THAT'S the true difference between Katsuki and Izuku.

If izuku the quirkless hero were to happen, then izuku would have needed unquestionable support from someone. That would have vastly changed his overall likelihood of getting into UA. Not only that but, as stated in the anime, quirkless people weren't even ALLOWED to go to UA up until Izuku's application year.

So the thing that stops a quirkless hero from becoming a reality is the perception of other people and the opportunities that they provide. Katsuki would have been phenomenal training for Izuku, maybe some sort of sponser for his support items, and the support from the people around him would have given Izuku the tools to succeed. But quirkless people aren't given that. THAT, my friends, is why the quirkless hero Izuku would have failed.

What is a quirk?

Quirks are a fickle thing because of how inconsistent they are. It makes understanding their impact so difficult. Before I explain how quirk discrimination works, I think it's important to properly define a quirk.

Let's group quirks into three groups: mutant, non mutant, and both. I think what defines a mutant quirk is anyone who has "physical characteristics". That can include anything from the change in hair color to being a pile of sludge. (like the sludge villain)

A non mutant quirk is anything that does NOT fit the original definition but is still a quirk. So pretty much anything non physical, like Uraraka's "zero gravity" or Aizawa's "erasure". Their physical appearance has no affect from the quirk they have.

And our third quirk type is never actually defined in the series even if it has the basis to be its own group. It could be anything from not affecting how their quirk works like Koda and how he seems to be "tree like", or be an ingrained part of their quirk as a whole. Like Tsuyu.

So that could mean that if mina didn't produce acid, then her quirk could have just been that she looks like an alien. This could be the same with kirishima's quirk because he has sharp teeth. That also makes you question that if part of inko's quirk is that she has green hair (a mutant quirk since it changes appearance), then izuku's quirk is actually that he has green hair. If ofa powers up any quirk it possesses, and it can't actually do anything to izuku's theoretical "quirk", then if the power was given to, lets say, Tsu, then her normal quirk would be unaffected. Maybe her poisonous mucus would be heightened, I could see that, but then wouldn't her "actual quirk" be that she produces mucus instead of just "frog"? Like mina's quirk, because the fact that she is pink seems to have nothing to do with her actual quirk.

Maybe the actual name of a quirk/how you define it is up to the person who owns it. Like quirks are up to the perception of yourself. Shigaraki's quirk is called "decay", but it could also very well be "disintegrate". In fact, that is MORE accurate to how his quirk works. But because he is a villain, he probably just named his quirk "decay" to seem more menacing.

So, quirks are up to perception, seems pretty similar to how heroes function right?

Disability

So, in a society that is even fundamentally discriminative, even towards people with quirks, where does that leave quirkless people?

We're gonna have to use our imagination a bit with how quirklessness is actually treated in MHA. (obligatory "hori why did you build up this plot line sm and then do close to nothing with it") There's few actual information we're given, and most of it is through a kid who was so discriminative because of his inferiority complex. So, let's make a list.

The most obvious one, but obviously being prone to bullying and teasing

Not being able to go to UA(?) up until izuku's application year

Less support from those around you (teachers, parents, other kids, or even heroes)

Doctors inherently see them as "underdeveloped" because they also don't have the "newer/more efficient" bodies that quirked people have (... tbh this just sounds like eugenics is openly accepted in the medical field in MHA so uh-)

Being quirkless is automatically seen as "weak" in mha, by both quirked and quirkless people

Most of this is about perception. And while systemic oppression is terrible to experience, perception can create a constant cycle of gas-lighting for the people who experience it. For example, while there are no direct laws that stop a trans person from getting medical care here in the US, (depending on the state) yet it's still extremely hard to get the resources. It IS a systemic problem in the way that capitalism is inherently set up to fail, but not a direct one. A person could say that a micro aggression from a white person to a POC is just because they're sensitive or looking into it too much. But god forbid it be actual oppression to touch someone's hair unasked for! Or ask someone where they're from even when they say the US! No, instead you're just "taking away from actual oppression" or "looking for things that aren't there". (as said in my bio I am white so feel free to critique this on anything I may have gotten wrong or you feel should not have been said)

For oppression to work, it must not be visible from the oppressors point of view. This will keep those who live in blissful ignorance from giving their support to a group that experiences it, while keeping white people from being uncomfortable.

From Izuku and possibly Inko's point of view, it may even be harder to get certain medical care. Technically it shouldn't even affect his schooling since use of quirks aren't even allowed in public unless you're a licensed hero, yet his teachers/students make it a point to make his life hell for his genetics.

MHA is inherently flawed due to eugenicists that were born as a result of heroes.

MHA is entirely about perception, from how heroes don't understand why capable citizens choose not to be heroes, to the villains who don't understand why those who were oppressed become heroes. Izuku was given ofa to be the dramatic irony of it all. The quirkless person has become a hero but at the cost of feeding into the environment that creates the very thing he fights.

Color theory/character design

One of the most important fundamentals of a visual story are the designs that the story chooses. And something I have always adored about mha specifically (especially in comparison to other anime and manga) is how strong the character designs are. Same face syndrome is almost non-existent in my hero, mainly because horikoshi knows EXACTLY how to make each character he designs distinct. (Same face syndrome is just when an artist draws characters with very similar faces for everyone. Studio ghibli often has this issue which is why they have characters that look the same from completely different movies) He also has a strong sense of color theory and knows EXACTLY how to make a character's colors tell more into their story than we think.

Take Nighteye. Weird choice of an example, I know, but he has one of the most intelligently well put together designs in the show.

This is the anime so please bear with the lanky hands problem. When you look at Nighteye you know EXACTLY WHAT his character will be like. He is a serious, well put together man, yet he has spots on his perfect and professional red tie. This shows his need for laughter in the heroic world, yet also shows his professionalism. He also wears a white suit, something that seems a bit odd for hero work since it would get dirty, but it also plays into his ideals for laughter and goofiness and hiding that behind a professional aura. Horikoshi knew EXACTLY what he was doing with every aspect of this design. Even down to the slight heel of his shoe, or the slight lankiness of his nature. When you look at Nighteye, you get a sense of professional intimidation and outright oddness.

And this isn't even covering the color theory aspect of his character. His hair is such a clever choice, using the yellow in his hair to both symbolize mirio and All Might, and making those aspects highlights. Because they are the highlights of his person. How he brings out the good in the characters around him. While also making his hair color an off, more swampy/murky green compared to Izuku's. Showing he is the shadow in his life at that point, while also being his parallel.

When you break down the fundamentals of a character design, you can start to make sense of who they are

Now that I've broken down a character design, you can see that the aspects of both Katsuki and Izuku's characters directly reflect their designs. I'm also going to say that I will only be commenting on hero costume design OR if their civilian clothes are consistent, like in small might's case. Civilian clothes aren't really made to do anything but make a joke or just be placeholders since it doesn't really matter. (like izuku's "sheets" t-shirt)

Izuku's design

We're gonna start with his color, of course; green. Green can mean a lot of things, from envy to new growth.

What makes the color green so special to Izuku's design is that it paints a picture of something so weak yet so strong. Something so alive, so human. There are a million and one things a color can mean, but what makes the color of a character so special is the consistency of that color. So while it does represent Izuku's rebirth into becoming someone strong;

"I'm the deku who always does his best" - coming soon for the psychoanalysis.

He is also weak. He is as strong as an oak tree, yet as weak as a daisy. And that's okay. That doesn't make him not a hero.

Green itself is also something nurturing, it's why he's so good with kids and, once again, the one with hyper empathy out of both of them. Deku and Kacchan. Midoriya and Bakugou. Izuku and Katsuki.

And on the flip side, Katsuki's color is so so SO fascinating from a color theory nerds perspective. His color is loud, outstanding, brash, strong, and most importantly, represents work. Hard, tedious, work. (I feel like I should also mention to give credit to where credit is due, most of color and general art imagery comes from paganistic religions throughout the world. So, it's important to remember the people that came up with the ideas we use and to respect everyone's beliefs. Because we sure as hell wouldn't have half of the culture we have today without those religions throughout history that may or may not be dead. A lot of it was lost with colonization, but they do still exist)

It's a color that exudes enthusiasm, creativity, success, and much much more. It can also be a color that represents impatience, dominance, and exhibitionism. It is a strong color, through and through, and it's the exact opposite to green.

The fact that orange and green are also secondary colors is important, showing the parallels between the two.

Why am I bringing this up? WHY is this so important? Well my friends, the answer is simple.

Izuku and Katsuki's colors are how they perceive themselves.

Izuku thinks he has two separate sides, even though they are one in the same. He is either the weak deku or the strong deku. The deku that always does his best. The deku too weak to stand out on his own. While Katsuki thinks of himself highly, he is either treated like a god or looked down on. He is always strong, always loud, always running ahead.

Even though neither of these perceptions are correct.

Izuku's bullying

Psychologically speaking, your childhood dictates a majority of your mental well being as an adult and how you react to a situation. It is the most influential part of a person's life. This can, of course, change as you gain more experience in life and possibly go through something traumatic whatever that may be. Your brain has some built in coping skills that we honestly have no clue why we do them?

As an example, my coping skills as a child became my imagination and escapism through shows or other media, while my sibling learned to disassociate from their emotions and childhood. Ultimately, even though I'm the younger out of the two of us, they don't remember our trauma but I do. And that's just, how it ended up working out. Some people try to take control of their trauma by writing about it, or by reading it. All three of these options have their good and bad sides. It just depends on the extremes of these coping skills.

Either way, because of how influential your childhood is, it's kind of important that your parents don't mess it up to the best of their abilities. This isn't always controllable though, which is why we're here, talking about Izuku's bullying.

Let's define what exactly Izuku went through. (obligatory tw for bullying/mentions of suicide)

Ah, the most memorable, the swan dive scene. I've talked about my thoughts on this scene multiple times, but to give a little rundown on my analysis here, this is supposed to be the worst thing Katsuki ever does. So, let's address a couple of things here.

Izuku is not sad, he's angry. They are both emotionally stunted in this scene, not even giving themselves the opportunity to process their emotions about this entire situation.

On one hand, the emotional part of this, both of them are actually having the same reaction. They are turning despair and insecurity into anger. The thing with anger is that it is a secondary emotion. They are just emotions that are born out of other feelings, so anger is super common because it feels better to be angry than it is to feel hurt.

I feel it is also important to address that every emotion is important to let yourself feel. Bottling up anything will end up making you explode later in the long run, and that includes anger. Secondary emotion =/= a bad emotion, it just means you should be aware of where the true feelings come from so that you can process it.

And on the other hand, the psychological part, Izuku's biggest concern is that Katsuki becomes a hero. Of course he does actually care about himself; no matter how many times people want to say that Izuku doesn't have a backbone, he does and he has since the first episode. The thing that stops him is Katsuki's threat. (Which, btw, was that a bait?? Was he even gonna do anything?????)

But I personally think the most interesting part about Izuku's bullying from Katsuki and his lackeys is this moment. It goes overlooked all the time, even though it's actually the most accurate descriptor of his bullying and also shows the moment Katsuki's reasons for bullying Izuku change. Before this, Katsuki put distance which turned into bullying because Izuku was weak and quirkless. He was better than him, why should he be around him? He was too clingy and kept on reaching out his hand. He was calling me weak.

But Katsuki knew how strong he was! That's why he put so much distance, he was looking down on Izuku for being stupid. Sure it affected his insecurities, but this panel right here? This was the first time he ever thought that Izuku's "thoughts" might actually be true. Which lead to rejection, bullying, and hate.

So now that we've established the actual bullying, how did this affect Izuku? Well, of course, it affected his self esteem. Izuku's self worth is basically on the ground or slightly raised throughout the manga. It was due to other people too, sure, like All Might, his mom, Iida, etc. but that doesn't change Katsuki's actions.

And this self esteem problem is so built into his very being that even when someone like Uraraka comes along, someone who helps him build his confidence, only ended up creating another version of himself he can compare to. Instead of being the weak deku Katsuki assigned him, he's now the deku that always does his best. And if he does anything that won't kill him or bring him close to death, he is the weak little deku again. He's everything Katsuki told him he was in middle school.

His perception of himself is so distorted, that he's only now picking up the pieces

This isn't Katsuki slander, Katsuki on his own has grown into a person who's assured of himself and others. He aims to be the light in Izuku's life and has atoned, apologized, and been forgiven. He had a phenomenal redemption arc and he constantly aims to fix this problem. But this isn't about his actions, this is about Izuku. So I expect 0% slander of Katsuki, All Might, or Inko.

The most ironic part about Katuski's death is that Izuku has been the one with death flags on him since the beginning. Death has always been an integral part of his character, and Katsuki's has always had the plot armor that he would let him stay alive. One of Izuku's first scenes is of Katsuki telling him to kill himself. We've already KNOWN deku's reaction to Katsuki's death. Izuku has always seen Katsuki in life or death situations, kidnapped, saw him get plunged through his body, but Katsuki? He barely saw it once.

No, scratch that, twice. His vigilante arc and his fight with shigaraki during the first war.

This is why Katsuki's "death" is so clever. Horikoshi AGAIN flipped it on its head. Deku is always the one in dangerous situations; he's downright suicidal when people are in danger. We've seen Izuku almost destroy all of Matsutafu over Katsuki being hurt. But we haven't seen Katsuki's reaction to Izuku's outbursts over him, nor have we seen the reaction to his possible demise.

Inko Midoriya - Izuku's first insecurity

Of all the people I've listed that have had an impact on Izuku, the first one to ever hurt him was inko. Inko may only have a few scenes, yet they are able to tell a much bigger story into who she is and how she is flawed. Everyone had their own major individual impact on him, so let's talk about why her impact is so unique.

Inko Midoriya, my my what an interesting woman you are. Something I actually adore about every parental figure in MHA is that none of them are perfect. They all have flaws, subtle or not. They are all good and bad even in the short time in which we see them. Endeavor, Rei, Inko, Mitsuki, Masaru; hell even whoever "Hisashi" is because while he supports them financially, he's never actually there. (if dad for one is confirmed canon which I think it most definitely will then I'll go into the reasons why he has "good" parental aspects in a different post)

Now, I can hear you asking the question, "well, what's wrong with Inko?" because inko is supposed to be this nice, nurturing woman that makes Izuku this little "momma's boy" archetype. And you're right! You could make the argument that Inko is possibly the best or one of the best parents in the series. But she is still that, a parent.

Parents are flawed, they're human. They are gonna mess up majorly in some way somehow and that's just how the world works. The best we can do is that, our best. We should always strive to change and grow as people in the moment, which is precisely what Inko does. She grew. Because her most major flaw was giving up on Izuku, she gave up on his dream. Quirkless heroes are possible, they always were, but perception and access to materials and knowledge is hard! And I'm not saying it's easy or anything, or even that Horikoshi should've taken that narrative. I actually love ofa and what it's done for Izuku's character.

What I am saying though is that Inko was the first person to not believe in him.

She was the first person he had to prove himself to, and only did so when he suddenly had a quirk and got into UA. She never stopped him, but she also never gave him her full moral support.

A major developmental impact parents have on children is how they choose when and how to support them. Even if you know your child can't be a mermaid, it's still extremely important that you assure them of their dreams. Not doing so can cause problems. This can include an immediate idea that you are not enough when you're older, general insecurity issues, and make you sensitive to rejection. It's setting them up for settling on something that they don't want to do which will make them unhappy adults, or just straight up stop them from taking the steps to do, well, anything.

Choosing whether to make your passions a career or not should be a choice you make on your own, not something that was shut down from you as a child. Izuku had no support, he is his only support. He even says so!

Because not even inko believed in him, and she was his only support system.

This is not Inko slander by the way! Because this is even an addressed problem in the series. She Apologizes to Izuku a little after he gets into UA if I remember correctly.

She did fail him, but that doesn't make her a bad person. It was bad and it just happened. There is no excuse, she just made up for her mistakes. Which is a continuous correlation throughout the series; no excuses or explanations. It just happened. And that's okay. She's a phenomenal parent and deserves to be praised for what she's done for him as his mother. She is amazing.

Uraraka - the hero for heroes

On the totally other side of the spectrum, I almost feel like Uraraka's looks are a visual representation of who Inko should've been. Because, like people have pointed out, Inko and Uraraka's looks are SO SIMILAR! Like it's almost uncanny. This isn't a Freud™ moment, (or at least I hope it's not) I think this is simple parallels.

Let's take a look at Uraraka so you get what I mean. (this is going to be very brief since I still wanna make a similar post about her, so yeah, this only covers her relationship to Izuku. Sorry lol) Right off the batt, she is his supporter. She supports his rivalry with Katsuki, fighting against a "bully" in her eyes. (I'll be covering this idea in her analysis btw) She even makes sure he has "good luck" by not letting him fall on his first day, TWICE! She is his first supporter and first friend in UA, a title he never had to earn by being "amazing". And at that moment she’s exactly who he needs. Someone who will build up his confidence in battle, saving, and general hero work.

Something I feel like people don’t understand is that Izuku needed Uraraka way more than she needed Izuku. And I don’t mean that in a way that he never actually did anything for her, rather that she made most of the conclusions about the flaws of society on her own. She came to the conclusion about toga without Izuku. Without anyone else directly telling her, OTHER THAN TOGA! She put together the pieces. She is neither the love interest nor Izuku's number one fan/supporter; she is her own independent person with her own flaws and ideas. She has her own goals, saving those who may not "look" or be "worthy" of needing saving. Like toga, like Izuku.

He was her inspiration, but she is now confident and smart enough to see Izuku's flaws and to believe in herself. Just as she was his main support to fall back on, and now he is able to confide in the people around him. He is confident enough to build a support system to help him.

Because men are not the inspiration for women to be strong, and women are not the support for their strength.

I think it's time to put away these very obvious patriarchal ideas. Building a new system throughout shonen to view women and queerness is important, because I'm tired of seeing men be inspirational and women be their support. Let's switch it up a bit, let women and men be friends; let them coexist without them being solely for the mc's arc. Let them be their own character.

Back to parallels with Inko, Uraraka was basically his sole support system along with Iida for a long time. Inko AND Uraraka being his only support was unhealthy in all aspects, you should never feel like you have to rely on one person to help you keep going. Izuku was still independent, but thank god for All Might and later on Katsuki for being his support in getting better.

All Might - "you can be a hero"

Now, I know that title is a little weird, but it's true! All Might was the first person to both believe in him and say he could be a hero.

I’ve seen a lot of slander on All Might and I feel like it’s a little unprompted? Like yes, crushing a kids dreams and leaving him on a rooftop and telling him to “knock until someone opened the door” isn’t like the BEST idea in the world. I get that. I understand it.

But at the same time, can you really BLAME HIM? In his mind, the only reason he is a hero is because of ofa. The reason why Katsuki and All Might are so similar has to do with the fact that they both define themselves by their quirk. A perfect example is when AM is talking to aizawa about losing his quirk.

It’s interesting seeing his thought process change and gain confidence in himself after talking to stain. All might had the same perception the rest of the world had, so of course he’s going to react the same way anyone else would.

All Might has not been quirkless for a long time

That has vastly changed his perception of both Izuku and himself. He saw ofa as apart of what made him great, not as an add on to an already great person.

Does this excuse his actions? NO! Of course it’s still BAD. I can admit that All Might supporters often excuse this behavior through ignorance. He’s still an adult and mentor and he’s had the time to learn, but there’s also an ignorant mentality from society as a whole.

And he had a point did he not? Being quirkless in hero work is still dangerous. Heroes are just glorified police. Hero work is not for quirkless people for a reason. That’s fine. I understand that. And like I said before, I don’t think horikoshi should’ve taken that rout of story telling! Ofa gives you more room to work with.

What I am talking about though, is how this mentality affects a child. Imagine being told as a kid, everyone BUT YOU, can have your dream? Everyone can be your idol, EXCEPT YOU. That’s traumatizing! It causes an inherent “otherness” in people.

Izuku still probably would’ve ended up a vigilante if he didn’t get a quirk and get into UA. Which is infinitely more dangerous than a hero because you can’t ask for backup or get immediate medical help in the field. Izuku needed to be a hero if he was going to be safe.

However, all might is the first person to EVER, give Izuku the confidence he needed. He told him what he needed to hear, told him he could be a hero. That he could fulfill his dream.

He made Izuku’s pipe dream a reality through training him and giving him his quirk. So yeah, I love all might, Izuku loves all might, he’s what Izuku needed most; a mentor and someone who believed in him.

The human hero - a psycho analysis

Wow we’re almost to the end! This bullet point was actually what started this entire analysis on Izuku. It was the first thing I wanted to make into a meta and then I just kept adding and going and.. now we’re here. It’s kind of bittersweet since this has become part of my routine, to get home from school and work on this ginormous essay for fun. But, here we are. Welcome to the end friends. I hope you enjoyed. Psycho analysis is something I hope I’m good at, but maybe I’m just pointing out the obvious lol.

I wanna start with his anger issues and where they come from. I’ve seen people time and time again say that it’s only Katsuki who has the anger issues, but I think you forget that this is an emotionally stunted boy in his teen years. It’s kind of hard NOT to have them at this stage in life. But where do they come from?

Ever heard of the term “emotionally immature”? It’s usually born out of a traumatic event of some kind. Generally, after getting to know someone you can make a rough estimate of when this person stunted in maturity.

Emotional immaturity is different from mental immaturity, and I need to get that out of the way. Mental maturity is simply just, how you respond to life based on your past experiences. Emotional maturity is your immediate response. Think of it like a conscious vs a subconscious response. And a lot of the time this is where anger issues stem from. Along with a lot of your own self doubt and insecurity.

It’s definitely important to analyze our emotions and it’s a skill people have to learn, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sit in the actual feeling of that emotion. Coping skills are great but they’re there to be temporary solutions to the bigger issue at hand. You have to sit and work through your emotions like you were supposed to the first time and that fucking sucks. I know I try not to curse when I do these analysis’ but it really does! You literally feel like you’re going through it all over again sometimes, but it’s what you have to do so you can mature emotionally.

And did Izuku ever do this? No, he didn’t. He did hero analysis or something else with his time. He used his interests or hobbies as a way to escape his problems with his dad, the bullying, and then again when Katsuki got kidnapped or when Katsuki was stabbed by shigaraki. He never got the chance to sit down and just, write about it. Sit in it. Work through them.

Oh but I can hear you saying, “yeah but how does he have anger issues?” My friend, what do you think those tears are for? Because it’s not just sadness or happiness. He’s angry. He repeatedly gets angry.

He’s pissed! And for good reason! But he is not outwardly pissed. Because if he was for most of his life, he was bullied even more. Izuku is in the position of not having the power, ever. And that created issues. With control, identity, and regulating emotions. He’s supposed to have been able to outwardly share his emotions throughout childhood so he could regulate when he was in crisis, but he didn’t. He learned to regulate his actions and bottle everything up so that it could explode at a later time. But when he came to UA? Things were different.

He started to mature again, emotionally. He was allowed and given the space to go full anger issues mode, so now every time he gets fired up in battle and tries to act like Katsuki, he explodes. Bigger than Katsuki now, because he never regulated his emotions correctly. (See more in ochako and Katsuki’s post because I’ll be getting back to this later)

And, this is not me villainizing any of Izuku’s emotions or responses. Ofc you should never invalidate anyones emotions. Not only are they justified in a lot of scenes, but they’re also not necessarily his fault.

What I AM saying though, is that unless there is a bigger issue, people do not get that angry during a match. Not even Katsuki got that angry until todoroki literally gave up the battle by not giving it his all like Izuku did or what HE even did during their match.

He got SO upset when shinsou called ojirou a monkey that he almost threw the match.

People didn’t get that angry during a match! At all! Not Ochako, Tokoyami, todoroki, and or even KATSUKI BAKUGOU, MR. ANGER ISSUES, got that angry!

Frustration is very different from anger. Very, very different. I think the subtlety of Izuku and his character just adds to it, because you have to really look for it to get an accurate understanding of him and his character.

The perception of others changes you

It’s only human nature for the perception of others to affect you. It’s normal, expected even. We’re social creatures, we conform to societal standards.

But when those standards get too high, or they’re made to make you feel small, it only hurts other people. It only hurts Izuku and his mental well being.

Trauma changes you (haha see, we’re finally getting back to that image of deku hitting shigaraki that I said would be referenced here!!!) and in Izuku’s case, he learned that getting closer to Katsuki made him act and feel a certain way. Romantic feelings is my personal opinion, and whether he knows what those feelings are or aren’t is up to you.

I talked about this in an ask before, but Ochako creating a new meaning of the word "deku" for Izuku only created a person he could separate himself from. If he is not the deku that does his best, then he is the useless deku all over again. There is no in between for him. (once again more autistic coding with the black and white thinking that he has)

This is very subtle, and that’s purposeful. A conscious writing decision to make sure that you, the reader, would not know his inner thoughts and turmoil.

He’s both emotionally immature, and emotionally separated from his peers, all might, and his mom. He has put himself in the position of being alone because it is all he knows.

Finally - perception

So, why does horikoshi keep most of his character relatively secretive? What would be the point other than to just, reveal it? You’re given all the pieces to put everything together so what’s the point in not even saying anything.

One key factor: izu//ocha. I have to ask the question, if you were to create a story that was secretly a queer story in disguise so that it could break an industry in some way, how would you do it? Personally, I would keep the main character and their love interests thoughts relatively secretive, give the pretend love interest confirmed feelings to confuse the viewer, and make the main character say vague statements that seem romantic. I would also make the two seem plain and maybe a little unlikable in some way even though the story is supposed to be about the character and his relationship to other people.

Which is exactly what horikoshi has done. He has used the perception of the viewer to say a bigger statement about how the viewer consumes storytelling. This is called “readers perception”, it’s one of the key aspects of how you choose to write a story. If the viewer was given all the information at once, it would be a boring story. So as a writer you need to choose what, when, and how you will show the reader information.

Horikoshi has an amazing understanding of this. But it’s also a really common writing issue! Steven universe is too tied to its main character, completely keeping the viewers perception of the story in solely stevens perception. But mha is never TIED to a main character and can therefore switch everything up so that you and Izuku have a completely different set of information while still FOLLOWING him as the main character.

And we keep coming back to this same topic; perception. Is it really so hard to believe that My Hero Academia has always been about the perception of others? From insecurity, to pride, it has made it a point to never let the characters make a perception of their own. Of themselves. Something healthy to view and understand. To the point where it even uses the perception of the viewer against you. Against the characters. Against the real life consequences of the world. My Hero has always been a show about proving perceptions to be wrong.

Your perception about how a shonen should work will change as MHA uses its platform and ideas to make a new for the industry. Not only will it create a space for minorities in a place that has actively excluded them, but it will also drive away or even change the opinions of the already existing people in them.

Stay hopeful. Keep your indomitable human spirit thriving in all parts of your life.

(I’m for some reason attached to these notes of how I organized this so it’s staying lol)

How to be a hero

Theoretical, quirkless heroes

What is a quirk?

Disability

Color theory/character design (izuku vs katsuki)

Izuku's bullying

uraraka, all might, katsuki, inko

The human hero - a psychoanalysis

#wow having a computer is nice #like i actually put in the time to make my thoughts comprehensible lmfao #its a treat #ill probably do a post on ochako next (mostly bc im excited to talk about her color theory) but thatll take a while #This has taken me a month to make and its so bittersweet finishing it but yeah hcieuhcieuchi pls enjoy it theres so much love I put in #midoriya izuku #mha deku #bkdk #bkdk brainrot #bakugou katsuki #bakudeku #bnha deku #mha analysis #deku midoriya #mha bakugou #togachako brainrot #brainrot #bakugou x deku #decchan #katsuki x izuku #katsuki bakugo mha #ochako uraraka #uraraka #ochaco #bnha #mha #Izuku analysis #midoirya izuku #bakugou x izuku #izuku mydoria

[historia-vitae-magistras]

good morning maam, can I please ask why Canadians aren't as notorious as Americans? you did the same things we did to Indians.

I'm not sure how you identify, but unless you're indigenous, 'indians' isn't the term you want to use for indigenous peoples. It's a dated, highly loaded and racist term in most contexts. Not to mention Indian is a nationality outside of North America. It's probably best to be as specific as you can in a local context but even in a broader way, that word is not what you should be using.

Moving on, to preface this, I am a white dual Canadian/American, so this is open to correction, and I will only be giving a very broad overview of my specialty as a librarian and archivist, media bias and information and research accessibility.

So to begin: notorious to who? The rest of the world outside of North America? That's because the US projects more soft power than Canada ever will. It is much the same for Australia, New Zealand or any other settler colony. We're all as fucked up, but it's American media that sets the narrative. And Americans and American politicians get to mouth off. There is a power difference that, for some reason, people like to equate to some uwu-esque quality to Canada, but it's not a reality so much as 'watch your mouth the Americans are twitchy' is. And Canada did its external imperialism in the form of the usual economic leverage in the north or otherwise under a British flag. So there's a certain difference in politeness but not kindness. Add that to the entire world seeing the fucked up things the US does. And you get a country that looks better. Plus, there's this weird thing where American liberals just, give Canadians the weirdest reputation of some sort of northern paradise, and there are key differences Canada does better on, but yeah, most of that 'reputation' has very little to do with Canadian reality as it does American perception.

In Canada, the history of the subjugation and genocide of First Nations peoples is just as well known to Canadians as that against Native Americans in the US, if not more so. As for why other human beings think it was 'better' in Canada or that the US is more 'notorious,' it comes down to rhetoric. Canada much more freely admits to these things, makes a big deal about apologizing and reconciliation, and there's generally more cultural and official acknowledgement. Indigenous issues are more visible in politics in Canada than they are in the US in many ways, but Canada, for the most part, isn't any better in policy. There's a lot of talk about the 'legacy' of imperialism in Canada and not much acknowledgement of the continuing policies in either country. So there might be something to be said about optics being more front-facing, but racism, deprivation, inequality, land theft and all the other facets of genocide are still very much in play in both countries.

If you want further reading, I'm happy to provide it.

#the ask box || probis pateo #research || sauntering through the stacks #history || that which makes us what we are

[whiskeyswifty]

hey, you're like, my go to source for like, swift-economics and nyc so I'm wondering, did taylor really rent the apartment on Cornelia Street? and how normal is it for someone of her caliber to rent in new york? because to me the idea of The Taylor Swift having a landlord is kinda funny. you know, I'd assume she's the one owning rental properties, not the one renting them. but this may be very naïve of me 😅

hahahahah omg idk if i'm worthy of that, but i'm honored and i'll do my best! putting it under a break so people don't get blocks of text about real estate on their dash at 10 am lmao.

as far as i know she absolutely did rent the place on Cornelia St (not buy it, which i see some people say quite often), and it was a townhouse i believe. at the time, it was reported that it rented for $40k-$50k a month, it came fully furnished, and i think it was reported that she was staying there cuz her tribeca place was undergoing renovations for several months. in my experience, it's very normal for wealthy people to pay that much in rent, especially temporarily. the reason why is that they want the luxury accommodations that they're used to, but staying in a hotel for months is very disorienting and uncomfortable and lacks privacy. so they pay a premium price to rent a place that comes fully furnished and is private where they can settle in for a longer period of time comfortably without having to go through the headache of filling it with stuff. it's just for a few months, as opposed to the years typical nyc tenants stay, so even if it looks like a lot per month comparatively to standard rent, it ends up being not that much to them if you compare it to a hotel or buying something. think of it more like an airbnb, which celebs commonly use when staying somewhere they don't own a home, like taylor did in mexico. another common example is very high profile actors who do a stint on broadway or who are shooting a movie/tv show in the city for a few months will do something like that. they're only living in the city temporarily, but long enough they want to settle in, so it's the best fit for them. i will say 50k is perhaps the ceiling, and the most a wealthy person pays in rent and that person is typically VERY wealthy, as taylor was and is even more so today. I've known many rich people who pay 10k in rent or 20k for just apartments, and that's part of why there is a housing crisis in the city right now which is super fun for all of us normal people! i mean it's not her fault, those kinds of rental properties always exist, we're just experiencing a post-pandemic boom of rich kids or influencers with 3k-5k to burn every month moving into the city and i hope all their ceilings collapse on them, but that's another post entirely.

as far as her having a landlord, it is funny to think about haha. but i'll say she probably paid upfront for the total months she wanted to stay there or something like that. keep contact with the owner minimal. if there was a broken faucet or something, i'm sure her assistant contacted the landlord not her, and things just got taken care of as they would if she owned the place. also, it was likely not a "landlord" in the typical new york piece of shit sense. corporate landlord companies typically don't bother operating townhouses like that. the turnover isn't frequent enough and the clientele is too rich and difficult to deal with, and they can't get rich off of them with the proportion to property taxes if it's a big townhouse. they are likely a wealthy private owner who previously owned the townhouse, and maybe owns several single dwelling properties in the city, and rents it out. the fact that this person is also trying to sell it shows me they're just a private individual, as for profit landlords wouldn't be selling a property they're also renting out. in that case, it was more cordial and she most likely sent one payment for her entire stay and it was a more personal landlord experience. i currently am renting from a private person who just owns my apartment and only rents it out cuz he and his wife moved into a larger one to start a family. i just text him if i need anything and it's really great actually, very easy and simple to deal with, so i imagine her experience was something like that.

i don't think she'd ever own rental properties, as that's a lot of headaches and oversight and she doesn't need the money. with the amount of money she can throw around, she'd make MORE money by buying a very expensive private property so the money she spends on it doesn't get taxed, as property taxes are way cheaper than taxes on income for the very wealthy. it's a common practice for wealthy people and often why they own a large number of properties and don't ever live in them. we have countless high rises in the city currently with apartments owned by wealthy domestic and foreign bankers and whatnot and they sit empty and untouched as just an asset they converted their money into to ostensibly "hide" it from being reported as income and lower their tax bracket. shitty but that's the way it goes currently, but nyc politics are an entirely different topic that is nothing but a huge bummer lolololol.

#i will note that renting from a private individual is VERY RARE though in the city #increasingly so so it's not normal for someone like me #but it is normal for her tax bracket i'd say

[slashyrogue]

Will doesn't know why he's here.

The teachers' conference had been postponed seven times in the past year, mostly because no one wanted to be stuck in Alaska listening to speakers telling them things they already knew.

Not even if they got paid.

He'd declined the last few years, mostly using the dogs as an excuse, but when Bev got sick just before the new dates changed to Christmas week she volunteered to watch his pack.

"Bev..."

"Go, Will," she said, coughing, "Go away from this sad house, get drunk, and maybe make a few friends out of your coworkers."

Will reluctantly agrees to go, despite being one of only four who said yes, and flied to Alaska with Gregory, Edgar, and Elisa all of which are in their late sixties to seventies and teach Shop, Gym, Math, and Home Economics while him being the lone science teacher made them all look at him oddly.

So now he's stuck, mostly alone, but in a very nice resort with people he has no desire to talk to.

Not a great Christmas week for him.

The second day had been a chore, long and boring the entire time, so now as he sat down by the fire he only hoped no one came to talk to him.

"Is this seat taken?"

Will looked up, ready to say yes, and blinked his cheeks turning red.

"I...um...no?"

The man that sat down beside him was dressed to the nines, his clothes so expensive looking that Will was sure he didn't belong here, and as he sipped from his mug Will was at a loss for words. He stared at him out of the corner of his eye, unable to stop, and wondered just where the most handsome man he'd ever seen had been hiding the last two days.

"Are you enjoying the conference?"

Will blinked. "What?"

The man smiled at him. "The conference," he repeated, his accent making Will's stomach flip, "Are you enjoying yourself?"

Will blushed. "I...um..."

He sipped his mug, still eyeing Will, who then let out a long sigh.

"No, no, not at all," he said, laughing, "If I have to listen to one more old man tell me that 'kids these days' need nothing but a sharp paddle I think I might stab someone."

The man laughed. "Yes, I....I agree. I just had to run from another group of people lamenting the 'horrors of the internet' like progress is a monster under their beds."

Will sighed. "Finally, someone who doesn't think progress is a bad thing."

"No, not at all, I...I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself," the man said, holding out his hand for Will to take.

Will took his hand, the strength of his grip doing things to Will, and shook.

"Will Graham."

"Dr. Hannibal Lecter."

"Doctor?" Will asked, "What...I mean...what do you teach?"

Hannibal smiled. "I am a guidance counselor. Yourself?"

Will blushed, pushing his glasses up his face. "Biology."

"We both help young people learn things about their bodies then, though I deal in their mind and feelings and you...tell them everything else."

Will smiled. "I guess," he said, "I...I still can't believe they made this near Christmas. Most people have things to do."

"And families to come home to," Hannibal finished, his smile fading.

Will frowned. "I didn't mean to change the subject or bring down the room. I just..."

"You didn't, Will, I assure you. I just...I suppose I lament at times not being able to use a family as an excuse."

"You don't..."

"My immediate family have long since passed, and I am unattached. Yourself?"

"Same," he said, "I guess we're just a couple of sad, single people."

"I wouldn't call myself sad," Hannibal said, sipping his mug, "Just...lonesome at times."

"Yeah."

They both looked at the fire.

"So...."

"Oh Hannibal, where are you?"

Hannibal froze.

"I...."

Will looked around and spotted a woman walking through the crowd. he quickly grabbed Hannibal's hand, pulling and the two of them ran for the stairs. He resisted the urge to laugh as they ran and went right to his room opening with his keycard. They ran inside, shutting it, and leaned against the door panting for breath.

They looked at each other, still breathing heavy, and before Will could even second guess himself, he kissed him. It was a messy kiss, years of not kissing at all making him rusty, but he grabbed Hannibal's tie pulling him toward the bed where they both fell back. Neither of them said a word as they pulled off clothes, and before long Will was stroking a stranger's cock, staring into crimson eyes, and groaning as Hannibal pulled back to take him into his mouth. He pulled his hair hard, making Hannibal groan, and came with a shout feeling like he'd run a marathon. Hannibal crawled closer, and Will reached for him, stroking fast, and they kissed again just as he came in Will's palm.

Both of them tried to catch their breaths after, staring into each other's eyes, and burst out laughing as they laid there.

"So," Will said, smiling, "That happened."

"Yes, it did."

"It was...."

"Amazing."

"Yeah," Will said, kissing him again, "It was pretty great."

Hannibal took Will's hand, licking his own mess from Will's palm, and Will sighed.

"Would you be averse to...doing it again?"

Will shook his head. "No?"

Hannibal kissed his cheek. "I'm glad to hear it. May I stay?"

"Stay," Will said, still smiling, "Stay."

Hannibal smiled, touching his cheek. "I will, though I think we need a shower. Lest we fell asleep messily."

Will nodded. "Ok."

The shower as fast, and somehow Will found himself on his knees sucking off a stranger even as Hannibal struggled to come a second time, and after Hannibal kissed him so much he was dizzy with it.

He collapsed first but Hannibal hugged him so tightly from behind he could hardly keep his eyes open.

"Breakfast?" he mumbled, "In the morning?"

"Any requests?"

Will sighed, his eyes heavy. "Other than you?"

Hannibal kissed his cheek. "I will surprise you."

Will woke up to Hannibal eating him out, and covered his mouth when he came, shouting out as his orgasm was ripped from him. He moaned as Hannibal rutted against him after, not thrusting inside but the friction was so good he almost felt like he was.

He sighed loudly after, smiling up at the ceiling, and Hannibal kissed his cheek.

"I suppose we are no longer bored now."

Will grinned at him. "No at all."

"What do you suppose we continue this for the duration of our stay? No strings, just..."

"Fun?"

"Yes."

He kissed him, touching his cheek. "Definitely yes."

"I think, perhaps, we're about to think differently about this conference."

Will laughed. "Very, very, differently. I think maybe Santa came...early...for us both."

Hannibal kissed him again. "I think so too, Will. I think so too."

Will looked into his eyes, heart skipping a beat.

"Stay? Just for another few hours?"

"We'll miss our conference meetings this morning."

"And?"

Hannibal pulled him close, and Will sighed laying his head on Hannibal's chest. "I think perhaps this a much better use of our time here."

"Me too," Will sighed, nuzzling his chest hair, "Me too.

#hannigram au #christmas getaway #hannigram #hallmark movie au #teachers au #strangers to lovers au #strangers with benefits

[bobwess]

So Russia suspended a nuclear arms treaty.

Ok, so the treaty limited the number of ready-to-fire nukes to 1500 I believe. Except most doomsday nuclear exchange numbers use 500 nukes. So the treaty had limited the number of ready-to-fire nukes to three times enough to destroy the entire US and likely much of the world. Oh no. Now Russia could get ready-to-fire the ability to have five times as many nukes as it would take to destroy the world.

I'll point out that if I remember correctly, the treaty also counted every bomber plane as one nuke no matter how many were on board and didn't include tactical nukes at all.

The treaty also didn't have any caps on how many nukes we had total, just the number we had set up ready to fire immediately.

The treaty also guaranteed that we were allowed to send representatives back and forth to each country to inspect the nuclear weapons we had. Ohno. Well it's been suspended already for a few years because of covid. Besides that, it's not like we don't have any other means of spying on their crap. Including but not limited to aerial surveillance, a thing we already do anyway.

We never fully left the cold war with Russia, and we're in one with China. Russia is weak AF right now after losing the war with Ukraine (Even if they haven't lost the fight, they lost the point of the war which was to make them look strong on the international stage and get themselves into a better bargaining position especially economically. Oops.) I'm not sure they have the capabilities to widely expand their nuclear arms stockpile, and I'm not sure they'd bother doing it even if they had, since, again, they already have more than enough to destroy the world. Will they continue to try and innovate new nukes? Yeah, but they were doing that anyway and so are we.

Why suspend the treaty to begin with? Probably propaganda. They're about to need to do ANOTHER draft to get enough soldiers to try another offensive on Ukraine, and the last draft was WILDLY unpopular. As the country feels the continued draining effects of this war, and countless people they know die in it, the national support for the war is waning. If Putin can successfully push the idea that NATO is standing with Ukraine and they need to be ready to defend themselves with nuclear force against them, he can stoke another wave of fear and support and possibly soften the edge of another round of drafts.

Anyway. Just my thoughts on the matter. I wouldn't be too worried.

[the-world-annealing]

So there's this rift within socialist thought, right? On the one hand you have people who don't like China, people who don't like the choices China has made on an economical or political level, and who thus believe that China is, at best, a failed attempt at instituting a socialist society; perhaps still better than western states, perhaps essentially the same, but in no sense worthy of praise, and not something to emulate when seeking to build socialism.

And on the other hand there's people who tend to be a bit more lenient, who say that China's current system is a necessary step to build up productive capacity on the path to true socialism. And those people will generally point out the massive gains in public welfare that China has secured over the past century, despite getting caught up in civil war, then invaded, and then drawn into a conflict between superpowers.

And they'll argue that look, there definitely are mistreated Chinese workers assembling iPhones for Americans as we speak, that's a thing that's happening, but that doesn't mean the Chinese state and its communist project have become subordinate to capitalist interests, that doesn't mean the CCP has lost all legitimacy and the best we can hope for is another revolution, we need to consider that China needs to accumulate some amount of productive capacity and secure its position on the world stage before it can get around to establishing a true classless society, and even if we're not there yet this is the closest we've ever gotten.

(and there's the low-information cohort, who see wages and stocks and homeless people and overworked factory crews and billionaires, who aren't exactly sure how a society with all that is supposed to be different from the western world's capitalism and will fall asleep if you start explaining base-superstructure theory, and I can't entirely blame them but also they're not too relevant here)

Anyway, I'm very sympathetic to the second group! The CCP did preside over a truly amazing improvement in living conditions, and it seems like letting in market forces was a necessary part of that, and I don't think that the resulting system is outright identical to that of the west even if it shares similarities.

But while we're at it, why not extend that leniency to more of the world? Sure, despite some surface-level hints at socialism the Swedish government remains intertwined with a thriving capitalist class: but that's merely a lesser evil they allied with to build productive capacity! All we gotta do is sit back until the robots have taken all our jobs, and we'll be able to pivot to Fully Automated Communism at the flip of a switch!

#decide for yourself how much of this is serious #communism #socialism #politics #china

[qqueenofhades]

UBI would just be giving people handouts, though. Like, "congrats your alive you get money" doesn't provide the best incentive to work? We're going to have a lot of freeloaders if we do that.

Uhhhh.

First of all, I think it's pretty obvious from my other posts that you and I are not going to agree about this, so I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here. Second of all, I... don't.... see.... what's....wrong with a government fundamentally providing basic financial support to its citizens??? There are plenty of people who CAN'T work for one reason or another and who struggle all their lives on extremely meager levels of support that the ableist state has decided they can (very grudgingly) be allowed to have, despite their terrible sin of not being able to join the workforce. Besides, the "UBI will make those lazy freeloaders not work!!!" is a) capitalist propaganda and b) not even true. Finland is one of the countries to have completed a UBI trial and guess what! People who received it were actually more likely to be in work after the trial ended!

Interestingly, the final results of Finland’s program, released this spring, found that a basic income actually had a positive impact on employment. People on the basic income were more likely to be employed than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant, albeit small.

This coincided with a strong uptick in mental health, positive social support, and other quality-of-life indicators. The people in the Finnish trial received €560 a month, which is obviously not enough to replace work-related income, but which DID provide enough extra funding to help fill critical gaps and provide more peace of mind. Besides, humans are naturally industrious and like doing things?? And are usually happy to work and find ways to occupy themselves, and the idea that they only "deserve" to survive or have their basic needs met if they're working long hours at a job that they probably hate is, again, capitalistic propaganda nonsense (not to mention, has strong undercurrents of social Darwinism, eugenics, and other questionable social philosophies).

In a world that is so wildly economically unjust, where a tiny handful of people control an incredibly disproportionate amount of wealth and so many people suffer with so little, you're simply never going to convince me, ever, that making more effort to financially meet their basic needs is a bad thing. For God's sake, giving them five hundred extra bucks a month, if we're replicating the Finland conditions, is hardly going to create a culture of "freeloaders." Why is that worse than forcing them to work multiple jobs for shit wages and still struggling? Why is their "production" the only important thing about them? Why is this the metric you've chosen to complain about in what is, as noted, an entirely theoretical program that is decades away from being politically feasible in America, if ever, and yet has been experimented and implemented in successful democratic-socialist societies that are, gasp, NOT AMERICA?

In short, as it has been put before and is still the best way to say it: I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people. Because, as noted, of all the outrageous economic injustices that currently exist in this world, it's extremely confusing to me that this is the one you would choose to complain about. And in closing: any UBI program in America would be funded, a la Social Security and Medicare, with taxpayer money. So that is YOUR MONEY to start with (and that of everyone who has ever paid a single penny in federal or state tax for any reason, which is almost every single American citizen over the age of 18). It's not "giving handouts" to distribute it back to poor people, rather than continuing to jigger the system so rich people pay nothing into it at all and are allowed to reap insane profits. And the idea that all other working people are your enemy and if they get anything, there will be less for you, is a deliberate technique used to keep you blaming each other, and not seriously questioning the grotesque accumulation of those at the very top. Because yeah. Uh. I think they can absolutely afford to fucking share.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts #wow the kool-aid is strong with some of y'all

[foxingpeculiar]

Guess who's still liveblogging Disco Elysium? (Spoilers)

Played through Day 4/Thursday today.

Feel like I got some things done. I got my gun back from The Pigs, I'm now fully in both Evrart and Joyce's confidences (well, I think... more on that in a sec), AND I reported Victor Mejean's death to his wife.

Actually, I'm a bit miffed about that. I made the mistake of talking to her before poking around and, although the conversation went really well, now I can't get back in there to investigate. Harrumph.

I was trying to use Rhetoric to open the shipping container near Evrart's office. He alluded to there being something interesting in there and there's a reason I'm able to keep messing with it. Kim asked me why I'm talking to it and one of the options was "Because using my body wasn't an option!" which it literally wasn't. I dunno, I feel on the hunt for little wall-breaks like that now, after the reflections in the previous post.

Cuno's whole scene re: the locusts... something is going on with that kid, with the whole "I made myself Cuno, I can make myself something else" bit. But I can't yet pass the check to find out what. At first it seemed like Cunoesse was just kind of following him, but after her little display... I'm not sure what her deal is either.

Joyce had a LOT of fucking interesting things to say. It was almost kind of too much to digest. But the two bits that have my ears perked are 1) Revachol being a place where all the ideologies converge to "resolve" history, and 2) the entire concept of "the pale." Both of those things reinforce the possibility that this is some kind of... what? Game? (Which it literally is, so there's that.) Computer simulation? Something like that. I'm not POSITIVE that's what's going on, but I feel strongly (at least for now) that something like that is an element of it. But she also said some people think of it as the concentrated past or something, and I’m not sure what to make of that part. It’s something working in layers.

Anyway, there's something about Joyce. She seems really cooperative and forthcoming, but I can't shake the feeling there's something she's not telling me.

I think it was when I was talking to her that I passed an Espirit du Corps check, where some people were talking about Harry and how he lost his mind. What is the Valley of the Dogs? What did they mean "we always do?"

I dunno, I have more information now, but I don't feel like I've significantly advanced any of the three major mysteries (reality, Harry, the murder). It's clear the game still has some stuff in store, though. I like the check in the window behind Travis that currently has a debuff: "-12: it's not time yet." Like, ooh, what's that gonna be?

Also, Joyce was giving me a history/economics lesson and said something like "the years '08 to '19 were hell" and like... yeah, okay. Those weren't chosen randomly, were they?

I feel like I'm sort of out of clear leads at this point. I wanna advance Soona's project, but I cannot figure out how to get through to Egghead. I have tried every branching dialogue option I could. He says "we're close" but it doesn't feel like it. But I guess we'll see what new developments the new day brings.

Also, what's with the two "cops" that just showed up in the Whirling? Like, that's (the latest in a weird series of incidences which seem to establish) a similarity between Harry and the dead colonel--two companions, a man and a woman. I know at least the male mercenary is someone else--the scab guy, I talked to him (that was fun), but I don't know who exactly they are and it feels like there's some intentional parallelism there.

Oh, and what role does Cindy have to play in this yet? Pissf****t and Fuck the World appeared, so that leads me to believe the Skulls are going to factor into this somehow in the coming days. I guess we'll see.

Onward and forward, I suppose.

#personal #video games #disco elysium

[bottomoftheriverbed]

if you call yourself lower middle class then what do you consdier to be middle class?

Ok I'm not entirely sure what prompted this but to clarify i am middle class. I call myself middle class, and i also recognise that the middle class is very complicated and generally speaking always closer to the working class than upper class. I am also not an expert in politics or economics (or my own family's finances from when i was a child) so when i talk about being lower middle class i am referring largely to the way i have been treated and perceived within and by middle class people and spaces which is why i tend to only mention that I'm lower middle class when it is in a discussion where the nuances of the way the middle class categorises itself matters.

I call myself lower middle class because i grew up surrounded by people, who were also undeniably middle class, but who had just a bit more disposable income than i did. Their parents worked more, i guess to borrow the American term, white collar jobs (usually office jobs, comparatively my parents are more grey collar i guess), they could afford to live in a slightly 'better' area, they went on fancy holidays, had the latest games consoles etc. Not a huge difference but just enough to be noticeable even and particularly when i was a kid. In my dad's very middle class family it became a lot more obvious that while it is combined with a huge amount of ableism they kind of looked down on us for not being as well off (and also because my mother is from a working class background). I don't really know how to explain it but because the middle class is so concerned with how they look, the smaller differences kind of matter more than they should. I suspect it's why both my great grandfather and my great uncle (working class people who became wealthier) both kinda cut off contact with their families.

Even now when my family is much better off than they were when i was a kid, i can see the difference when i talk to my flatmates even though again we're all middle class (they're actually paying full price for the room which would be a stretch for my family, i have it at the price of a standard room because i have need an accessible room first of all).

Idk have you ever read/watched a Room with a view by E.M Forster? It's kind of like that. Lucy and Cecil are both middle class (even if Cecil is more upper middle class) but there is a massive distinction between them with Cecil looking down on Lucy and her family and the Honeychurch's desperate attempts to be like Cecil even though they're technically in the same broad class bracket.

Sorry that doesn't really answer the question i know

#class #classism

[adiduck]

2 and 23 for the asks?

For this game:

2. thoughts on veganism?

Well, I'm not vegan, so please take what I have to say about this in that context, but I have nothing against it! What I don't like are people who judge a person for NOT being vegan. I obviously hear all the reasons why veganism can make a positive impact, but there are lots of reasons why someone might make the decision to not transition to an entirely plant-based diet, from economics to culture to health. Also, many staples from veganism do tend to come from exploited labor (lookin' at you, quinoa), and I find that the more militant vegans don't acknowledge that. Like, there's no perfect solution here, we're all just doing the best we can, you know?

Veganism itself, though? Listen, I'm not in any position to judge a person for a dietary decision, and we all do what we can however we can to make the world a little better a place to live. Carry on!

23. do you wear jewelry?

Sure! I have a ring I always wear, and I tend to just sort of leave a pair of stud earrings in. I like necklaces fine, too, when I want to be fancy. I've never been a big bracelet person, and anything TOO tight around my neck bothers me, but like. Yeah! Jewelry is fun sometimes!

#ask game #ask replies