#how to construct an argument

[starfieldcanvas]

this is what i meant in this post when i talked about how English essays are about learning to bullshit and people assume that learning to bullshit will enable bullshitters to recognize bullshit in return.

they aren't the same skills!!! guysss they aren't the same skillsssssss.

being a very good bullshitter can just mean you overestimate your own ability to spot bullshit (especially when it doesn't look like your own), or it can mean you assume everyone else is bullshitting when they aren't. if you do happen to be good at both, it may just be because you're good at a sufficient mix of relevant overskills—confidence, critical thinking, reading comprehension, pattern recognition, inductive logic—rather than because 'bullshitting' and 'recognizing bullshit' are actually reciprocal skills.

just, you know, think for a second. trump bullshitted his way through his entire business career and all the way into the presidency. and yet he is constantly being snowed in by whoever sucked up to him last. yeah, you personally may not find his bullshit convincing, because he's radically opposed to your politics so to you it seems obvious he's a clown, but prior to his run for president, this man regularly convinced banks to give him huge amounts of money by confidently bullshitting about his net worth. he is a professional bullshitter. he is also incredibly gullible!!!!!

[lyculuscaelus]

So lately I’ve been seeing a lot of posts asking people to stop trying to make Odysseus look nice in their works cuz he’s a “messed-up person in the mythology”. Your opinion is valid however I have but one thing to point out:

You want to know who started all this? Who started to “make Odysseus look nice” in the first place?

It’s Homer. It’s nobody else but Homer himself.

A non-Homeric Odysseus would try to murder people out of his own interests. He’d murder Palamedes without remorse (and we’d be cheering over this but it’s a murder after all), he’d attempt to murder Diomedes just to get the Palladium himself, he’d volunteer to kill Astyanax…meanwhile you wouldn’t find any mention of either Palamedes or Nauplius in Homer’s poems, neither did he mention anything abt the Palladium heist (and Diomedes necessity did not happen until Conon’s version), the death of Astyanax, the distribution of war prizes, etc. And all the details in the Odyssey seemed to deny the existence of Nauplius’s vengeance at all, so Odysseus would not take any of the blame.

A non-Homeric Odysseus would be depicted as “cruel, treacherous”, meanwhile in book 10 of the Iliad Odysseus was not mentioned to have killed anyone during the marauding, neither did he promise Dolan anything at all. The negative interpretations are denied by these details subtly put by Homer.

A non-Homeric Odysseus would be widely known as a “coward” for only shooting arrows from afar. But Homer gave him a spear and had him absolutely slaying in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. That part of Ajax’s speech was invalid already.

Most importantly—a non-Homeric Odysseus would be having kids everywhere else, and the loyalty to his own wife as seen in the Odyssey is no where to be found. Meanwhile his lineage was a single-son line made by Zeus in the Odyssey, and his love for Penelope was one of his main drives, especially seen in book 5 of the Odyssey. He loved his family as a loving parent—something you don’t get to see in most of the non-Homeric writings—for most of the time they followed a different tradition indeed, in which Odysseus wasn’t half as nice as in the Odyssey.

TL;DR: in case you haven’t noticed, the characterization of the Homeric Odysseus was quite different from a non-Homeric version of Odysseus. It’s not that Homer didn’t know of the existence of other versions—he knew them too well, which is why in his version of the story, you don’t get to see any mention of them.

[salty-an-disco]

you ever resent a character's popularity because of how most of the fans reduce them to their characterization in a single scenerio instead of observing how they are in other circumstances as well?

[corviiids]

look i hope you aren't all following me in search of more croissant content. i hope you're just in general seeking carefully reasoned but asinine and opinionated monologues

[stellaluna33]

Man, some of the social rhetoric around childcare is starting to sound dangerously close to "Poor people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce." Like, when it comes down to it, that's what people are saying, and I don't think that's right.

[swiiivet-screamathon]

With a deep, unsteady breath, Pv tries his very best to calm his nerves.

"Are you okay Pure Vanilla? If you're scared we can do it another day, right?"

"I'm alright, and we could indeed, but the fewer cookies scared of the unknown the better, so I'm confident it's the right move to make."

"Would you really describe him as known...?"

"As much as you can know any cookie. However what's important is that he isn't some monster under the bed. If we want any chance of having him around in the kingdom then that fear must be dissolved as soon as possible, regardless of our success or failure."

"It's certainly a lot easier to be confident when you're not afraid."

"Exactly. I will handle myself fine in front of everyone, but I can't help but share my worries though. I don't want to put any party into a difficult position, and although I may be forgiven for any hiccups in my own language, I cannot say the same for everyone else if I give them the wrong impression."

"If there's anyone us cookies would give a second chance to it'd be you, I'm sure of that."

"I appreciate the assurance, but I'm not the one I'm worried about."

...

"Friends of the Cookie Kingdom! I've got something I wish to share, if anyone's got a moment to spare."

As Pv stands by the fountain a couple cookies immediately gets their attention drawn, forming a small crowd in a matter of seconds to listen to the announcement, with more trickling in over time as they see the commotion.

"I along with my dear friends, Gingerbrave, Strawberry Cookie and Wizard Cookie all had an expedition into Beast-Yeast, as some of you may know. And whilst there we've learnt many things. Most importantly to me is that we've found White Lily Cookie, but I am here to alert of a specific request. A group of cookies called the Beasts got released from their eons long prison, all of them all mighty in their own right as the original owners of our Souljams. But I've stayed in contact with my other friends to the best of my ability, and it seems we should be able to have it under control, there should be no need to panic. I mention this as I've got a project I wish to embark upon: Our three here has agreed to help me attempt to rehabilitate these Beasts to their former selves, those who held our Souljams with high regard, who were kind and thoughtful rulers of their time. So I will be making preparations to eventually, one day, having them be around in the kingdom. When or if that day comes all I ask of you all is to not treat them maliciously on sight. I understand that such a plan or even the request itself can absolutely seem daunting, so I will do my best to ensure that everyone is informed and prepared when the time comes so it may be bearable for everyone."

The crowd immediately erupts into ever-present murmuring, many growing concerned looks on their faces, whilst other filled with hesitancy. Until a certain visiting pink cookie steps up.

"Not to doubt you, but if they're powerful, you're going to handle them, you're worried about us reacting maliciously and call it 'rehabilitation'; are you sure that this plan of yours is a good idea? Is it not better to dispose of them whilst you've got the upper hand?"

"That is a fair perspective, which is why I do not ask any of you to have their actions and reputations cleansed based only on my account. However my perspective is judged upon what I've experienced, and from those events I've got the confidence to at least try. If it assures anyone I won't hesitate to take appropriate action if anything doesn't go according to plan and will help anyone with any resources they could need to feel safe."

The vibe of the crowd doesn't shift a large amount, but the little it did seems to have resulted in a lot more of a neutral crowd, simply hoping for the best in such uncertain times.

[bijoumikhawal]

my job on the commune is to chase people who think all of the Byzantine Empire can be primarily described as European in any meaningful way with a switch

[metanarrates]

watched a majora's mask analysis earlier today with my fiancee. my verdict is that I actually really enjoyed the op's interpretations, but that I wished that they talked more about mm's literal level and what one can get from it, rather than talking about those events as if they are strictly metaphor. yes, of course the metaphorical layer of the game is rich to dig into, but it's also such an open-ended and surreal game that it's difficult to nail down every single distinct metaphor that can be derived from its events. which is why I consider it necessary to discuss the way the literal layer presents itself and what sort of motifs and ideas exist there as a baseline before you begin looking at it as metaphor

[moongothic]

Not really into IRL AUs but if Crocodile existed in our world he would be running a sand mafia and you can't convince me otherwise

[jrueships]

avon 'EXCUSE ME!! he ASK for no

P I C K L E S . '

barksdale

[puppetdoggy]

Instagram reel comment sections are a really good place to visit if you feel uninformed or uneducated on a topic because you will 100% see people with opinions so stupid it will make you feel like a scholar by comparison. Just saw a man wholeheartedly claim that stomach parasites are turning people gay.

[asinglesock]

just realized my fatal flaw and the great struggle of possibly the rest of my life. while watching a cdrama.

[fayevalcntine]

I don't really think when the meta writers hit back against the strict boxing of characters where once again the white man in a homosexual relationship got framed as the femme, they really were meaning to put Louis on the pedestal of a nurturing matriarch. Their little notes on their blogs do not excuse Louis's carelessness or selfishness when it comes to Claudia. They don't excuse his violence when it comes to Claudia. Their metas had mostly to do with their (Louis and Claudia's) dynamic against Lestat. And if in that Louis got projected as the matriarch then yeah, mothers can hurt their children. Ari aster in hereditary, in the movie witch, even in game of thrones, there are proofs of violence a mother can heave on her children.

The metas were mostly a reaction to how lestat got categorized. That's it.

I get what you mean, but as I previously said, I don't think the framing with solely the Edwardian marriage text in mind is completely necessary nor is it really capable of fully reflecting the familial dynamic we see by episode 6. The reason why we see Edward Carpenter's text in the episode is because of Louis, right? Louis as the narrator gives us literary references throughout his story that we can then use as hints so as to see what kind of dynamic he may allude to regarding him and Lestat. But those literary hints aren't the full constructed framing, they're just hints. Louis' story goes beyond them, as I mentioned in how his monologue during Claudia's train scene is explicit in the commentary of Claudia suffering from segregation laws and how even in spite of them, she found elation because it meant running away from Lestat. He made sure to state that even while having to hide in a train car that was used for luggage as a stowaway because of racist laws, Claudia didn't care about accommodations if it meant being free from her abusive father, therefore highlighting again how visceral her feelings of being trapped were.

I'm not here to tell meta writers what they should or shouldn't write, I just stated that when others only take this framing in mind and neglect the other obvious ones, they begin to lose important aspects that Louis repeatedly notes on in his story. And I don't think you have to do that when you're arguing against another overly simplistic viewing of the characters.

[redrocketpanda]

I think I should get a sticker for surviving my exposure to a straight cis man yday who decided to go on some kind of rant about The Song of Achilles based on his disagreement with the "obsession" people seem to have about whether Achilles is gay or not when it "doesn't even matter" and the entirety of Achilles' story is about the fact "a woman got taken from him". And then proceeded to make a derisive joke to his friend about mixing ashes together (bc apparently this is a deeply funny and pathetic thing)

Bearing in mind he said this to me (person who adores TSOA, named my dog after this version of Achilles, has done a podcast episode on Patrochilles, and is deeply obsessed with Greek mythology & queer history)

And that the friend he was making this joke to is a queer, polyamorous cis guy who I've been fucking for the past 3 weeks...

Like bro, idk what kind of flex you thought you were making but it is not the one

[mrcowboydeanwinchester]

400 words of references in my 1750 literature word essay. oh what an incredible decision it was to make footnotes count towards the wordcount just let me talk about FEMSLASH

[xbuster]

Does anyone on the side of "AI is always bad under any circumstances" have an opinion on AI Gumi?