tildesee

[tildesee]

the varying reactions from americans to a trans woman making a vent post about american queer cultural imperialism:

1. call her racist, fascist (lol.), transmisogynistic (double lol.), or antiblack for… using two examples of americans who’s names and faces have inadvertently been put at the front of that imperial machine.

2. call her transmisogynistic for above while degendering her, despite her pronouns being listed clearly on her blog.

3. pull a “not all americans!” and exempt themselves from any personal responsibility to attempt to enact change on the matter. even better, claim the problem doesn’t exist in the first place.

4. attack her for an autocorrect typo on Marsha’s name (which apparently also makes her racist, by the way) and then not use the long vowel when they go on to tag the post “maori.”

5. tone police her, claim that she’s too aggressive or reactionary. (which is also a transmisogynistic attack against her, but let’s all ignore that bit)

6. embody Jared, 19 and claim that she was blaming those two aforementioned american activists for this issue, call her racist for that, then even go so far as to make vagueposts about her presumed antiblackness.

7. literally do the thing that the post said was bad, what the fuck??? say she’s “disrespecting our foremothers.” or whatever that one note said lmao.

8. americasplain the problem back to the rest of us, but without the nuance that Not Being From The Imperial Core grants the rest of us.

9. all of the above, ad nauseam per infinitum

farkkkkk honestly. remind me to not be a non-american trans woman on the internet again, ever. literally every single note from non-americans is either “i have experienced this problem in my country and/or community” or “i agree, here are some resources about my local history” or “good point, i am going to go learn about my local history” and then practically every single american is Pissing On The Poor and/or calling me racist. utterly scuffed website. shout out to the rest of us, who’re long sick of this munted shit from america and have to coddle them through every post like this.

[tildesee]

i get that americans love their cultural imperialism, but it really does piss me off that june is “international” pride month just because something happened in the united states.

in aotearoa, june isn’t our pride, it’s theirs. marsha p johnson and sylvia rivera are their historical figures, not ours. the phrase that “you owe your rights to Black trans women” is true there, but here we owe our rights to (mostly) Māori historical figures. i have the freedoms i do because of the legacy of an entirely different set of people operating in an entirely different context at entirely different times.

But because of american cultural imperialism, most queer people in Aotearoa don’t even know our own queer history. Carmen Rupe, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, the Dorian Society, Gillian Laundon, Georgina Beyer, and the Wolfenden Association are some of our queer history. We should know their names! we should know what they did for us! but because of the power of the american imperial machine, we don’t.

our national pride month should be july, the month that the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed in 1986. our two largest cities hold their pride festivals in february and march, respectively. american queer history has very little (or nothing, depending on who you ask) to do with our queer history. anecdotally, from my own queries, queer youth in aotearoa know more about american queer history than our own.

anyway, happy pride, americans. i’m truly sorry that most of you don’t see the negative impact your nation’s culture has on the rest of the world. and to the rest of the world reading this, try searching for your own country and culture’s queer history, don’t accept the american narratives as your own. we deserve our own histories divorced from the cultural hegemony of the USA.

[tildesee]

you got a minute? I need a favor

Hey everyone, it's Lex. Happy New Year to you and yours!

Today, I have a huge announcement about Titanomachy RPG and its future. This month marks 3 years since I joined TTRPG Twitter. I've met so many incredible people and learned so much from y'all. Your support has allowed me to take one HUGE step in my life. 

I recently moved to Maryland from Florida to get some basic human rights. I also left my job of 7 years to try and live unburdened by selling hours of my life to some random rich guy. And now, I'm taking Titanomachy RPG full-time.

Here I am, already having taken the leap. I have some money saved up, yes, but ultimately I am trusting in the generosity of others to help me build out a life I can truly love.

So yes, this is a Patreon announcement. And there's a link to Caltrop Core below (if you want to make a one-time contribution). But before anyone exits this email, I want to talk about all the cool stuff everyone can expect from me, regardless of Patreon status or donor status. I have a lot of exciting things coming in 2024, like:

a NEW open license d12 system called DODECA!

physical copies of my games becoming available via Indie Press Revolution, starting with NIGHTHAWKS!

more consistent game & system releases

seeing more of my work in some upcoming Evil Hat projects (look for me in the Girl by Moonlight stretch goal zines)

prints of "prayer to curse ron desantis", bunny girl osr posters, and perhaps shirts/hats/merch?

ttrpg workshops IRL in the Maryland area

and much much much much more!!

Now, here's the link to my Patreon before I forget: https://www.patreon.com/TitanRPG

I have an AWESOME founding patron bonus. There are 3 tiers of membership, and no matter which you choose to join today, you'll get a pre-release PDF of GOLDEN BEETLE PLAYGROUND, my Medabots-inspired TTRPG built on Caltrop Core EX.

This bonus is ONLY for people who join this month. After January, I'll take it down to work on the game further (and eventually do a full release later this year). 

For tiers 2 and 3, I'll be releasing one short RPG every single month. These games will remain Patreon exclusives until I can put proper polish on them (or the patrons vote to release their favorites).

There's a bunch more goodies and details on my actual Patreon page. Click that link to see!

Eventually, I'll be putting merch up on that page, so even if you can't support with a monthly pledge, you'll be seeing posters, shirts, hats, all that very soon!

These days, I'm on tumblr every so often, but no other social media. Patreon will be my dedicated page for updates, game mechanics, design discussions, everything! Even if you join at the $3/month tier, I want to provide a ton of value, starting with GOLDEN BEETLE PLAYGROUND!

Click here to see the three membership tiers and support a trans game designer today!

Thank you for your support over the past 3 years. I hope to remain worth of it for many more years to come.

All my love,

Lex Kim Bobrow

Publisher, Titanomachy RPG

P.S. Here's the link again. Take a moment to check out the page please, and if you can't contribute, please tell your friends! I've lost touch with so many people after leaving Twitter, so any help in getting the word out is 10000000% appreciated!!

P.P.S. If you could reblog this post ASAP, I'd really really appreciate it. Thank you!!!

[tildesee]

i actually need to know people's thoughts on this because at least in my experience the answer to this has drastically changed since i was on tumblr in the 2010s and its driving me fucking insane

*im talking about fandom takes specifically. not someone being horribly evil about a real-life issue or or blatantly factually incorrect. literally just harmless fandom disagreements or differing interpretations of a text/character/etc.

[tildesee]

serious contender here for best video essay ever made

Lily was tear gassed by the cops in the course of making it, and that's not even the bit that hits the hardest. Seriously, check it out, it's incredible

Lily has been crushing it lately

[tildesee]

You’re a daycare worker, watching over toddlers, when the imminent end of the world is announced. It becomes increasingly clear none of the kids’ parents are going to show up as the end inches nearer.

[tildesee]

Uk peeps!! Let’s get this going! 🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇧

[tildesee]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thom Smalley (@smalleys.chop.shop)

[tildesee]

its all 'be gay do crime' until a black person starts making allusions to drugs or sex or god forbid VIOLENCE and then it turns out nobody can handle anything more hardcore than downloading illegal torrents of hamilton

[tildesee]

"You can't have [experience] because you don't identify as [label]!!!" how do I explain to people that experiences exist outside of and prior to the formation of specific language to talk about them

"You can't have [experience] because you don't think of it through [framework/explanation/etc]!!!" how do I explain to people that experiences exist outside of and prior to any formal cosmology, hypotheses, or explanation assigned to them

[tildesee]

the emotion i just experienced is kind of indescribable

[tildesee]

stoner older sister who makes you smoke a joint with her for the first time just so she can watch your low tolerance already gullible self turn into a mentally checked out mess for her to take advantage of

[tildesee]

I certainly think that those who can bring themselves to should cheer for them, yeah. I think those who can't should set aside the desire to laugh and condemn though. Legitimately, unless you think all of those people should die and are willing to do something to make that happen (and if you do, more power to you, live your convictions) you will need to make peace with the fact that these folk will keep living. Strategically, if you want people to actually stop being cultists and fascists, they either need to die, or they need to be brought back in to society and allowed to stop being cultists and fascists.

There were some comments about how Nazis didn't stop being Nazis at the end of the war. That's partially true. Plenty of people who voted for the Nazi party did go on to disavow, share about their experiences, show actual moral change. Much more in East Germany than in West Germany. The Allied Powers, and the United States in particular, were pretty invested in not actually getting rid of fascism. It's not that people couldn't denazify, it's that denazification was actively discouraged and inhibited.

Look up any literature on cult deprogramming, please. Absolutely crucial to it is community. I see folk saying "they need to be accountable" and "it's their responsibility" and like, sure, kind of. But in accountability, accountable to who? Accountability requires people to be accountable to, and actions they expect you to take to settle the account. And sure, they need to take responsibility for uprooting the shit in them, but like. Nobody does anything alone, and that goes double for cultural work. They will find people who will offer to help them, one way or another, or they will die, and it's better for us all if it isn't fascist grifters of a different stripe who are the only ones who accept them. Isolation kills; that's something these fascist movements take advantage of in order to recruit and manipulate people.

You don't personally need to provide community for these folk leaving MAGA, but someone will, and it's better for you if you have some control over what community they get.

This is an interesting thing. Looks like testimonies of people who left the MAGA movement- how they got into it and why.

Leaving a cult is really hard, so I really respect the people who are speaking from this place.

[tildesee]

This is an interesting thing. Looks like testimonies of people who left the MAGA movement- how they got into it and why.

Leaving a cult is really hard, so I really respect the people who are speaking from this place.

[tildesee]

[tildesee]

metroid is about isolation

but metroid is also about learning to do trick jumps from random animals who celebrate when you get it right, and about saving them even as the planet shudders under your feet

and metroid is about lowering your gun when you meet the last of a species who's only just hatched, and gently holding out your hand

and metroid is about accidentally calling the name of someone you care about, who you thought you'd lost, and finding out they've been with you the whole time

and about a little scribble of a child with their parents tucked into the corner of a grand mural

and about the gifts left behind by others because they may be gone before they get to meet you, but that won't stop them from helping you

metroid is about love actually

[tildesee]

relmartist on Instagram🌈