#discussing ideologies

[niggadiffusion]

What Topics Do You Like To Discuss? (Seriously.)

What topics do you like to discuss? Let’s get one thing clear — I don’t “like” small talk. I don’t do small talk. If the conversation can’t get its hands dirty, if it can’t scratch past the surface, then respectfully, miss me with it. Life’s too short to waste oxygen on weather reports and fake laughs.What do I like to discuss?Everything that matters and everything that’s supposed to be…

[captainjonnitkessler]

What's your feelings on landback?

It's complicated! Especially since "landback" is used as an extremely vague catch-all term for a wide variety of action.

Some people define it as defending and expanding sovereignty over the land already controlled by indigenous tribes, forcing the US government to uphold its treaties, generally supporting and protecting indigenous cultures, and fighting for environmental protections and better stewardship of the earth, all of which I fully support.

Some people define it as "returning sovereignty of ancestral lands to the tribes who used to inhabit them" and tbqh I don't know how that's supposed to work. Kind of seems like any steps taken to ensure that native people retain control over the land/government would necessitate disenfranchising 98% of the country, and that seems pretty bad to me! And no, I don't think disenfranchising almost your entire population is an ethical or effective way to make reparations for past atrocities.

Most of the info I can find on the subject is very much style over substance and doesn't contain any actual plan of action, so it's hard to find concrete info on what the second group is actually proposing.

[windcarvedlyre]

I've been following @druidposting's DR2 playthrough on discord and we just had a really good discussion about DR's Closing Arguments. Specifically the way the murderer is depicted as grey and featureless, which until now I found a bit annoying.

In Danganronpa it's repeatedly the case that we don't have the full picture until the talking actually stops- which always goes beyond the end of the trial. We generally vote first and come to understand what the murderer's actual motive was, sometimes filling in important pieces of the timeline in the process, afterwards.

But none of that matters for the killing game because characters' emotions aren't directly relevant to who was the 'blackened'- the only thing that matters to Monokuma- so it comes out afterwards and does nothing to change their execution. It doesn't matter how sympathetic they are (basically everyone) or whether other people share responsibility for the situation (eg. Hanamura, Pekoyama, Momota) or whether they intended to murder at all (Nanami). They objectively pulled the trigger and nothing else matters. Nothing about them as a person matters.

The Closing Argument mechanic might illustrate that problem- literally. They're a dramatic, conclusive summary of the entire case... constructed before the vote even happens, before we know if we're actually right, and they're missing something really important:

The actual perpetrator.

We quite literally don't even begin to see the real person behind the crime, any real exploration of their mental state, anything besides the cold, hard facts of the murder that are necessary to convict them, until the comic finishes and the protagonist makes their final accusation- replacing the grey figure with their real appearance in a shot that's often intensely emotional.

And these comics lack crucial parts of the case's timeline and sometimes important parts of the very scenes they depict that we only find out about afterwards. And those are what we know; characters may die with some pieces of the truth and prevent us from ever learning them. These aren't objective depictions of the murder, they're the protagonist's subjective attempt to connect the facts they have. A join-the-dots portrait of someone with missing dots and no colour.

Even characters' expressions may not match how they truly feel, with the grey placeholder potentially looking way more confident and sinister than they were in reality. Pasting Falter's commentary here since they put it well.

For obvious reasons this could especially be a problem for characters that die before the trial- the ones we never get a post-vote testimony from. DR1 chapter 4 really highlighted that in the way Asahina's huge misinterpretation of Oogami's feelings took up a lot of the post-trial discussion, only for Monokuma to reveal Oogami's real suicide note and recontextualise everything.

It might really be a problem for how Komaeda's depicted in DR2 chapter 5. While he isn't greyed out, we get panel after panel where he's either level-headed or maniacally evil, and even the depictions of his self-torture and death don't humanise him:

But we know that his real feelings were more complicated than that. We have his actual corpse to compare the last page to.

He died afraid.

If we approach the comic as Hinata's mental image of him instead of reality, he died without anyone truly understanding him. He was alarming, very hard to relate to, actively fought against people doing so, ensured even the killer didn't watch him die, and the survivors couldn't begin to understand his motive until a chapter later. The Closing Argument reflects that.

Early in DR1 Togami calls out the rest of his class for judging others by their own standards. However, he, too, is doing this, maybe more so than many other characters; his inability to view other people through anything but the cold, brutal logic of the killing game bites him in the ass in chapter 4. In DR2 chapter 2 voting without a good understanding of Pekoyama's motive or Kuzuryuu's involvement nearly got everyone killed. Komaeda's a walking embodiment of the problems with flattening people into caricatures and not empathising with them, suffered from people doing that back to him, and his case- the Closing Argument for which turned everyone else into grey placeholders- was impossible to solve with objective facts. It was only survivable because the survivors cooperated and one person tried to analyse things the way he would.

The games have always been a critique of the justice system and Japanese society and push us to care about others as individuals, not reduce them to- and judge their right to exist by- something they've done or their net impact on society. There are always consequences when someone neglects to do that, and the above might be yet another way the games explore that theme.

[deservedgrace]

i really do think something a lot of people (especially christians) don't understand is that atheism only answers one question: do you believe god(s) exist? atheism says nothing about ideology or beliefs held, it's simply an answer to that one question. the only thing you know for sure two atheists have in common is that they both don't believe in the existence of gods. there are atheist scientists and there are atheists that are anti-science. there are lgbtq atheists and there are anti-lgbtq atheists. there are right wing atheists and left wing atheists. "atheists believe [xyz]" is almost always nonsensical because atheism is not an ideology with things to believe in. "atheists believe in science" is just as true as "atheists don't believe in science" because atheism answers ONE question and people with all kinds of ideologies and beliefs and identities are atheists.

[thanatika]

crazy how viktor can't take a shit without people trying to claim that the shape of it is somehow him trying to brand himself with the talis family crest because being romantically obsessed with jayce is his whole personality now apparently.

[katabay]

hi katabay!! this is prob a wack question lowkey but i was just wondering how you read/know so much?? i love reading the descriptions on ur art bc they’re so interesting and i Wish i could do that LOL

tbh a lot of why I read so much is because growing up, money was tight and the library was free. and now I'm broke as an adult, but the library is still free & also I spend a lot of time on public transit which is also is "free" reading time

a large chunk of what I read for fun is actually non fiction- it reads like poetry to me, and I like seeing if I can apply stuff I read when I was going through public domain stuff from the lancet to. uh. borderlands or something. it's kinda fun for me!

usually the process is: I'll have A Question about something while I'm reading and after, I'll see if there's An Answer somewhere & there's no real limit to what I'll read until I satisfy the curiosity, I will chase that thread down until I've run out of thread and hit a wall lol (and ofc the time honored tradition of watching a cool movie/show/comic and then going to see if the writers/producers/artists have their own favorites and check all of those things out)

anyway, my thoughts jump around a lot so I keep track of things in a commonplace style notebook; while I'm reading I'll take some quick notes abt anything I thought was interesting or really banger turns of phrase I want to remember for inspiration and list any questions or themes I want to explore later in a dedicated margin. I'll come back later & either answer my own questions in a different color (so it's easier for me to find), make a book list of additional things to follow up on, or just circle back with additional thoughts I had since then (or comic scene ideas)

lmao you can tell I have trouble wrangling my thoughts in order, I forgot to say: tldr; if you'd like to give my approach to whatever this is a shot, I'd recommend getting a notebook you wont mind carrying around and just write down shit you think is cool when you come across it & why bc the 'why' is the fun part to explore

[niggadiffusion]

What Topics Do You Like To Discuss? (Seriously.)

What topics do you like to discuss? Let’s get one thing clear — I don’t “like” small talk. I don’t do small talk. If the conversation can’t get its hands dirty, if it can’t scratch past the surface, then respectfully, miss me with it. Life’s too short to waste oxygen on weather reports and fake laughs.What do I like to discuss?Everything that matters and everything that’s supposed to be…

[incesthemes]

it's bothersome that the themes in early supernatural (kripke era, seasons 1-5) are so vastly and starkly different from pretty much everything that comes afterward (with some minor exceptions, but those exceptions rarely last and always give way to the newer direction and ideologies of the post-kripke show) simply because it makes talking about the series as a whole nearly impossible. either you must inherently disregard everything after season 5 and only talk about the show kripke created and wrote, OR you must disregard everything kripke built and only focus on what the show became, often erroneously applying those later themes to the original conception of the show.

i'm sure there is, theoretically, a way to talk about the show as a whole unit, but i have never once seen it done successfully 😔

[jewreallythinkthat]

The thing that really gets me about the "protests" where people throw red paint over a university or whatever is that the only person who suffers is the minimum wage care taker/janitor who has to scrub it off. It highlights the complete carelessness of the extremist elements in the free Palestine movement that they don't give a shit about someone living on the edge of poverty, working a shitty zero hours contract cleaning up other people's mess just to make ends meet.

It's vandalism and literally the only person who suffers is someone with no link to "the problem".

Even the things where they steal a bust, or slash a portrait. These will obviously have insurance so the uni isn't out of pocket, some portrait fixer is gonna be thrilled with an extra payday, and it does nothing except get the police involved because actual criminal actions have been taken. It's worthless posturing by people without enough knowledge to have the guts to actually debate someone in public and instead rely on chants and performative destruction to play out their violence fantasies.

It's pathetic.

[kittyconfidant]

I believe in my heart of hearts if Beffica wasn't a woman that the fandom wouldn't hate her so much. I don't know whether it's because people receive women characters differently or because the 'mean girl' stereotype is so baked into our heads but if she were a male character I truly believe everyone would be obsessed with her. At least that's just my experience in fandom.

I understand that we're all very attached to Filbo but the way that fandoms act like specifically female characters are evil for being rude or mean is incredibly common and all encompassing.

[emblemxeno]

This brings up a question I've always had why DO so many people call Edelgard a revolutionary what am I missing? She's point for point like all politicians who claim it's for the good of the country and go back to how things were when it's just an excuse. Like I don't like bringing real world stuff into this but Israel and Netenyahu? Russia and Putin? Make America great again and Trump? They all use the exact same tactics calling the other side the enemy it's all by strength alone (please ignore the system you just aren't strong enough listen to me I'll save you from the evil scapegoat I'm telling you about), using only people close to them to put into positions of power, it's honestly shocking people are blind to this??? Then again they seem to think the church is just like our church when they're barely alike so idk

We really failed as a fandom tbh.

When the game presents an imperialist autocrat pretending to be (and believing she is) a revolutionary and who sides with terrorists who committed a genocide without much pushback beyond insults until she gets what she wants because, to her and her jackass evil butler, their useful power outweighs being fucking evil and making things terrible.

And a significant portion of the audience says "yes actually, she's a revolutionary who wants to bring change and everyone who's against her wants to maintain a toxic status quo, especially the genocide victim whose warnings and instructions were ignored by humanity."

Despite the fact that, for as much as she claims she's future focused, she fucking venerates the past to an insane degree. She thinks things were better when the other countries didn't exist; she believes things are better when one person on the imperial throne gets to call the shots with no checks on that power (like, just because it's not an inherited position anymore, doesn't mean it's good, since the subjects still don't have a voice); she compliments a past when merit and strength (concepts that are just as brittle and easily taken advantage of as birth status) were what got people high positions without consideration of those below the shot-caller; she thinks things were better when Nabateans had no ability to participate in how things operate-in their own birthplace mind you-because she doesn't view them as beings capable of emotion, logic, or rationality.

Edelgard is a rough textbook example of the evils of modern conservatism, wanting to return to an inequitable and oppressive power structure of the past that shut the majority out while claiming "oh just be better at your job, you whiner." And no amount of her feeling "uwu sad" about her actions changes the fact that she's still doing them.

[lobotomy-lady]

this is related to your reblog about politics but I hate the hypocrisy of where ppl are like ex terfs can’t ever become involved with the fore front of the LGBTQ movement but they will gladly allow ppl (see: TIMs) who admitted to being ex neo nazis to represent their movement,

True + I've also just simply never even heard of an ex rf going back to being a libfem tbh? It always seems to be the opposite, most rfs start out as libfems. So their fears of "ex terfs leading the movement" are all unfounded hysteria as usual. I also have seen tweets by tims that are like "former terfs will not be forgiven after the revolution" lmao like ok buffalo bill why don't we take a look at your ideological past (& present tbh) & see what we find. How about that.

But yeah they make it clear every day that they will welcome rapists, nazis, pedos, misogynists & all manner of other degenerates w/open arms but if you step a toe out of line w/the groupthink regarding gender ideology specifically they'll have you excommunicated & slandered. They do this to people who are fully on their side wrt trans rights but dare to say smth like "well I think trans women are women but they're biologically male"-nope, that makes you evil even though it's literally factual information (the biologically male part anyways lol). There's zero room for debate, or even respectful discussion. It's cliche but they rly do operate like a cult & I would know, my dad has been trying to indoctrinate me into his born again fundie cult since I was 3 years old so I recognize the tactics.

[hearthfire-heartfire]

tired of existing on a spectrum of "kawaii japan!!" to "japanese people are pedos and fascists".

tired of people confusing japanese and nikkei culture with the culture of empire.

tired of no one in my life being excited for my language reclamation because anime speak is so common.

tired of the phrase "ethnically homogenous".

tired of my elders being traumatized into sharing their worst, most shameful memories of incarceration because they are terrified when the same things are happening here AGAIN.

and it is so... utterly draining when i see a thousand and one opinions on the AI miyazaki generator that focus on the iconography or ethics of his works and i just keep thinking about how many japanese hands made western animation possible. rankin-bass stop motion was animated in japan. ralph bakshi's tolkein adaptations and the last unicorn were animated by the animators who would form studio ghibli. inspector gadget, rainbow brite, the adventures of sonic the hedgehog, batman: the animated series, gargoyles, ducktales, the animaniacs are ALL from tms entertainment's contract work. i definitely see the AI generator as an attack on an artist who has expressed only disdain for the concept, but also, japanese animators have been generating your art on both sides of the pacific for longer than most of the people on tumblr have been alive. are you actually upset about exploitation of japanese arts or do you just have proximity to the current topic?

can you see the exploitation when it doesn't affect your interests or if you couldn't find a video essay on the topic?

[dead-generations]

A frequent thing said by religious people is that atheists just don't understand the purpose of religion and the role it plays in their lives. Which I find endlessly amusing, because frankly religious people are very ignorant of the role religion plays in their lives, and tend to totalise all relationships yo religion as being like their own (see: Christians trying to write about any other faith experience) and it is atheists who are able to see the social role of religions.

Even if atheists are generally not good at tracing the development and origins of religious ideas and ideologies, most religious people are in fact worse and simply assume these ideas either autogenerated or have simply always been. Christians are remarkably terrible in particular at understanding the track of their own theologies.

[dykedvonte]

@gecko-in-a-can THIS ABSOLUTELY

Resentment is such a big part of Benny’s motives towards House, feeling he’s underserving to rule and shouldn’t have the right to keep the title of Vegas just because he claimed it first long ago. Say what you will, Benny puts the effort in, through honest and dishonest work albeit, but he puts in the effort. Not saying House didn’t but House had the luxury of having a lot of that effort done before the war and subordinates to do so after. House is untouchable, something everyone wants in the Mojave, if not for the power, but because of the security. House takes that for granted seeing how easy he thinks it is to buy people. Benny, a Mojave native, has to be irate about that seeing how he has seen the heights and slums of both lives.

Also with the AIs it’s so telling because in a lot of ways, Yes Man has more autonomy than House’s major personality securitrons. Yeah, Yes Man has to be helpful but he’s aware and able to be snarky and coy. Benny has an issue with not being listened to but that’s the only perimeter Yes Man needs to act on. He can’t condescend but lord you can tell when he wants to. House’s AIs serves specific and highly detailed functions but are confined to act in accordance. They are subservient to a T and are extensions of House while Yes Man really is a creation that adapts further, hence his desire for the assertive upgrade. Benny made something, or at least was okay with a helper, that can progress for itself. House made things that replicate or facilitate an era of the past and don’t hold the power to contest it.

[brujite-de-gulubu]

I started playing Disco Elysium for like a third time and man if this game isn't just beautiful and complex