#is this parasocial propaganda?

[blanketforcas]

jensen & misha vs you, the audience || bo burnham - can't handle this [x]

this is whatever you want it to be.

[slimethought]

An examination of stochastic terrorism, parasocial relationships, and the connection between them. It explores the definition of stochastic terrorism and parasocial relationships, how coaching audiences happens, and the phenomenon of the lone wolf.

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Additional voice work provided by: Matt:    / brianneandmatt   & @Normal_Matt DogMartyr:    / @dogmartyr  

Sources: https://stochasticterrorism.blogspot.... Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance: https://www.participations.org/volume...http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Doc... NOVA: The Parasocial Phenomenon: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article... Alt-Right pipeline: Individual journeys to extremism online: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php... “Attacks by White Extremists Are Growing. So Are Their Connections.”: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2... There Are No Lone Wolves (opinion piece written by Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...

Additional Watching: The PewDiePipeline: how edgy humor leads to violence: part 1:    • The PewDiePipeline: how edgy humor le...   part 2:    • PewDiePipeline 2: How to Shut it Down   The Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radicalize a Normie:    • The Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radica...   My Descent into the Alt-Right Pipeline:    • My Descent into the Alt-Right Pipeline   Incels:    • Incels | ContraPoints   FAKE FRIENDS EPISODE ONE: intro to parasocial relationships:    • FAKE FRIENDS EPISODE ONE: intro to pa...   FAKE FRIENDS EPISODE TWO: parasocial hell:    • FAKE FRIENDS EPISODE TWO: parasocial ...  

__________________________

Credits:

LadyGoggles avatar: Picrewの「girl maker!!」でつくったよ！ https://picrew.me/share?cd=3YZFYGGt5e

"Figure", "Spectator", and "Friend": Picrewの「きりんの女の子メーカー」でつくったよ！ https://picrew.me/share?cd=OEVEVOBmmB

Hey Guys! The Beauty Gurus of YouTube:    • Hey Guys! The Beauty Gurus of YouTube  

Glitch images provided by: https://freestockfootagearchive.com/

Diskman Blues, Existential Worker, Speculation Alley, Always Alone by Martijn de Boer (NiGiD) (c) copyright 2018-2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/people/NiGiD

[dlasta]

Aaaaaaand youtube is back with the Depp shit. Blocked three channels to start with, let’s see if it helps.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Finals

Propaganda Under Cut

Sakura Haruno

Her husband is gay and her author doesn't know how to write women. So many people say she's the worst but she. DESERVES. BETTER!!! Save her from this franchise.

My baby girl my bestie my best friend. She committed the crime of um being written by kishimoto who both doesn’t know how to write women and somehow writes men in the gayest way possible specifically naruto and sasuke. Like the thing is naruto and sasuke ARE gay and also she gets so much hate for the crime of kishimoto writing her one dimensionally in love with sasuke. I know her personally she is a butch lesbian to me just trust me she’s in love with Ino and has a lesbian thing going on with Karin okay just trust me. My everything. She needs to divorce the loveless lavender marriage she’s in 

What is there to say, even? The OG Threat to my 90s anime brain, the only woman I've ever hated with such a passion she made me turn away from the color pink. I used to write fics with my friend where she got left behind on purpose so our OCs could join the Naruto and Sasuke team instead. I loathed this bitch until I was 16 and realized the author simply couldnt write women and decided it was time to make peace with Sakura. It is not her fault she's vaguely written and obsessive over Sasuke. She deserves better. Sasuke and Naruto still should be together and Sakura shouldnt be with Sasuke but I no longer believe this because I hate Sakura, it is because I love her. She deserves a spouse who will actually put in the time to treat her like the hero she is.

Misa Amane

she gets treated in-canon the way fandoms treat female characters that Threaten an m/m ship. it's like, "oh why don't you go sit in the corner and be pretty, misa, while the Men have intelligent conversation and pretend they aren't ten seconds from fucking each other, doesn't that sound nice?" it's infuriating. and MAYBE it's better now but i remember her getting treated the same way in fanfiction too, like we all need to do just as badly by our female secondary characters as fucking tsugumi ohba, but with the added insult of making her be alternately oblivious of the relationship between light and L or actively trying to sabotage it—incompetently, of course, because god forbid misa be allowed dignity or moments of cleverness.

she's one of the first characters I think of when I consider old school fandom misogyny. The annoying bitch and clingy crazy gf allegations were AFTER HER ASS. She's also a lot more intelligent than people gave her credit for, but most seem inclined to take the Very Biased word of our unreliable, narcissistic narrator and his homoerotic arch nemesis and claim that just because she's bubbly and into romance that she's also a complete moron. Which is blatantly untrue. Everyone was afraid of Misa girlbossing too hard. Killing people and devoting yourself to the deranged twink of your dreams even though you know he'll never love you back??? Having a hardcore goth aesthetic and being so Hot even literal Death Gods are into you?? God forbid women do ANYTHING!

Not only is she the victim of yaoi culture, she is the victim of early 2000s misogyny by an author that wanted to introduce a girl character because he knew his male rivals were getting too homoerotic. She is a goth bimbo icon who portrays what I think is one of the few callouts for stan culture and what parasocial relationships can do to both the stan and the idol. The fact that she is a toxic fan of Kira and also hot, funny, sociable is tragic in its own way, which I think the author did try to touch on but was too misogynistic too really get through. Of course, she was reduced to villain status by the fandom and anime alike because she got in the way of the supposed romance in their psychological horror anime

[doriandrifting]

Uhm I don’t know how to break it to some of y’all but Noah’s last post was asking people to stand with Israel before he went ghost on social media. In the wake of what happened, I gave him the benefit of the doubt with that post. But I was scrolling through my fyp and saw literal dead Palestinian bodies and the next video was his return to social media with a smoothie ad where he is manually deleting comments including mine voicing how fed I up I was watching that bullshit. Not because I have some parasocial relationship or because I’m disappointed. Just because I refuse to have cognitive dissonance about this.

Like I’m not gonna tell people how to feel or judge anyone for seeing this differently, but I really need y’all to extend that same principle to those of us who literally just think that is some utter fuck shit. Because I do. I’m watching Israeli soldiers doing Tiktok dance trends on my fyp. A sponsored smoothie ad filmed by a millionaire in his mansion amongst videos of genocide after he posted pro-Israel propaganda and leaves up lies about beheaded babies for his millions of followers. All the while I’m sitting at my regular ass job debating putting a bus ticket to Washington D.C. on my credit card so I can go protest because there are people being slaughtered with my tax dollars. I don’t hate Noah Schnapp, but please don’t ask me to care about him right now.

[ceilidho]

someone on twitter made a thread of every COD actor currently supporting israel and the replies are full of people shocked and upset and i was like ??????? have we forgotten what franchise these people work for???? like. actors for the western military imperialist propaganda game support western military imperialism. in other news, fork and knife found in kitchen

the moment I saw that Elliot knight had been added to the list I knew we were in hell. I’ve known about Samuel for a bit so I’ve been actually changing the version of Ghost I write (finally caving and giving him brown eyes) because I was so grossed out by that article he liked. I think it’s upsetting because most people accept that they act in these games but wouldn’t support a real life genocide, because what’s happening in Palestine is so obviously unjust and evil that you genuinely feel insane when you see people still supporting Israel and the IDF.

I’ve seen a fair few people call it parasocial to care about an actors politics btw and I completely disagree. So please don’t leave garbage in my inbox about that

[ms-taurusvenus]

Saturn in Pisces Transit

What to expect and what may occur.

When spiritual leaders quit their platforms, don't be shocked. This could occur haphazardly or unexpectedly (appreciate them when you can or else).

Many people who are regarded as "spiritual" are abandoning their convictions. Most of these individuals employ spirituality and perceive its practitioners as part of a trend. This includes those who are spiritually inclined.

Saturn will teach and punish those who use spirituality to manifest other people, cast spells or other rituals to do something with another person's permission, or cast love spells without that person's permission.

Spiritual con artists and frauds, practitioners with dubious ethics, those who engage in shady business tactics, and those who have bad intents for both their clients and other people will come to light. As a result, people who are well-known, respectable, and skilled in their field will be questioned.

Tarot and astrology readers are being put to the test to see if they are truly cut out for the profession. Saturn will demonstrate that not everyone is suited for every task.

Water concerns are to be expected. Examples include the disappearance of sea life and agricultural products (1B crab), food sickness from seafood, a drop in fishing, the observation of events in the water, an increase in sea levels, severe storms, and other natural disasters caused by the water.

By the time everyone or the majority of people realise how damaged the earth is, it might be too late.

People will begin to ground themselves more, set boundaries, and have higher standards. You might expect a stern lesson from Saturn if you violate other people's limits.

Expect people to be establishing their boundaries on this for those in parasocial connections (particularly with celebrities).

There will be an increase in privacy. Many becoming a hermit and withdrawing from society. As Pluto moves into Aquarius, this will only get more intense. This may lead to an increase in people abandoning and deleting their social media accounts.

Additionally, there will be fewer large meetings and organisations.

There will be more lying as well. Governments and world leaders will also begin to hide and divert attention from the situation. Also possible is an increase in fake news and propaganda.

People who lack empathy will also experience some type of karma for their lack of empathy and other people's irresponsible behaviour.

Increased dental problems, foot swelling, sleep problems, mental health problems (perhaps more diagnoses), and past-due medical problems will all be on the rise.

[blorbo-adoption-poll]

Penny poll Bracket 2 Finals

Penny Lamb/Jane Doe (Legoland / Ride the Cyclone) vs

Penelope (The Odyssey)

Propaganda under the cut

Penny Lamb/Jane Doe (Legoland / Ride the Cyclone)

• Okay I am not the person to be propaganda making for her but she's so cool she died once and then came back she's also a bit uhh deranged is a good word

• Penny Lamb (and her younger brother Ezra) lived in a hippie weed growing commune until she was thirteen and snuck out to a walmart, eventually leading to the entire thing burning to the ground. Then they lived in a tiny town named Uranium City and she got relentlessly bullied and even set on fire until she was given a cd by another girl from a band called Seven Up. She formed a parasocial relationship with the singer, who then turned into a misogynistic rapper. She travelled from northern Saskatchewan to Florida to meet him and thank him for basically making her life tolerable and enjoyable, and then ended up tearing a chunk of flesh out of his face with her teeth all at the age of 15 years old. Two years later after a concert with her school choir, she was beheaded on a fair rollercoaster called the Cyclone, becoming a Jane Doe until she was voted back to life. While she was Jane Doe, she wore the head of a porcelain doll as to not freak the other kids out!

• she was born a hippie, she bites and maims a famous rapper with hot coffee, she has a little brother obsessed with german philosophy, she plays the ukulele, she has a fuck ass bob. she gets fucking DECAPITATED by a roller coaster but survives because she is so offputting. what else do you need in a woman

• Where do I START with Penny. Basically she grew up socially isolated on a community pot farm until the age of 13, where she and her brother ran away to Walmart and started pretending to revive him from seizures because of how much attention she got. She was eventually driven back home where the entire community was drug busted burned to the ground, their parents being arrested, friends taken away, entire home destroyed. Instead of being sent to foster care, she’s and her brother are sent to a catholic boarding school, where they live mostly unsupervised. Penny is relentlessly bullied for supposedly being a lesbian, and diagnosed as bipolar and manic depressive while her brother (three years younger than her) sells his adhd medication to college kids to make ends meet. Soon after having her backpack lit on fire by bullies, she starts to fall into a deep depressive episode, not coming out of her room for days, until a catholic girl takes pity on her, and gives her a hiphop/boyband CD for her to listen to called 7-up (important later). Penny obsessed on the lead singer Johnny moon to an unhealthy degree until the band breaks up and Johnny rebrands to JK47, a misogynist gangster rapper who penny can’t stand. Penny and her brother run away from middle of knowwhere Canada to Florida to meet him so penny can win him back and remind him of how much she loves him and how cool he used to be. This doesn’t go well, as he doesn’t drop his gangster persona, calling her the same insult all her previous bullies did, leading to her throwing hot coffee on him, tearing a chunk off flesh out of his face with her teeth, and subsequently being arrested and later out on probation. Penny ALSO gets her own movie (in the play) and tells the audience this very story in a presentation with goofy puppets. Penny’s story is funny and absurd but at the same time incredibly tragic and heartbreaking. She also appears in ride the cyclone where she’s revealed to be the identity of Jane Doe (who had her head cut off before she was found dead in the rollercoaster accident with the other choir kids and was therefor never identified)

• she is a femamist lesbian and I am in love with her

• She's known as Jane Doe throughout the musical because she doesn't know who she is in death, her head is a doll's head because she lost her real one in the rollercoaster disaster that killed all the characters, she's the one who wins the prize of coming back from death which is when we learn her true name Penny. Her song is absolutely *beautiful* (The Ballad of Jane Doe) and she is the Penny of all time because I love her

• Girlie already lost her head we can’t take her victory too :(

Penelope (The Odyssey)

• She waited about 20 years for her husband to come home she used her huge brain to keep the suitors away for ages I just think she's neat

• She is LOYAL. She is SMART. She is HARDWORKING. She waited for TWENTY YEARS. Penelope is a QUEEN (literally). PENELOPE SWEEP

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

I tried so hard not to be parasocial about it but this letter thing is fucking me up, man. I've written a few overly flattering letters to evil government officials before myself. but how did someone convince all these reasonable-seeming people (strangers that I do not know) to publicly sign this centrist-ass letter? I understand they probably got Taika Waititi and Jack Black with the everyone can share, peace and love on the planet earth wording, but Jordan Peele? what. how did that happen. it makes no sense to me.

Ok I'm gonna front load my position on the Israel-Palestine conflict before I answer this ask so that no one can accuse me of shit I didn't say. If you want to see what I have to say on the letter itself, scroll to the big font. I'm as anti-zionist as they come I don't think that governments should even exist at all, I consider Israel to be an illegitimate state the same way I consider the country I live in (USA) to be an illegitimate state. I think that if we're going to have countries at all, which we shouldn't, that country should be Palestine and individual Jewish people certainly should be welcome to move there for whatever reason they want, including religious, but that the people who already lived there shouldn't be displaced because of it. And if they wanted me to support Israel on the basis of Jewish people needing somewhere to go after the Holocaust, they should have put Israel in Europe in 1945 instead of in the Arabian Peninsula in 1918. I tend to think the hard core zionists who aren't Jewish are trying to deport diaspora Jewish people somewhere based on the way I have heard other goyim speak about Israel. I am sympathetic to Jewish people who believe this has nuance but ultimately I cannot condone the displacement of Palestinians. That position might lose me followers but really I don't care.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way

(This first paragraph is for everyone who's out of the loop and has only seen the Tumblr posts about this issue, Anon does seem to know what I'm about to say) I do also think this whole thing with the letter is being blown out of proportion a little bit? That's not to say it's a good letter, it does contain language which blames Hamas for the conflict which is the western propaganda line so that countries like the United States and Britain don't have to admit that they caused and are funding this whole operation because they hate brown people. However celebrities are rubes who fall for government propaganda all the fucking time. What the letter itself actually calls for is Biden to facilitate the release of Israeli hostages. I consider this letter to be the vaguely Zionist equivalent of that time all those celebrities got on zoom and sang imagine because COVID was happening. I certainly doubt that the man who produced Get Out and Us supports the genocide and I also question whether the man who directed Reservation Dogs does either. Most likely they were asked "will you sign a letter calling for the release of Israeli hostages?" And they said "well releasing hostages sounds nice."

(this paragraph is for anon) Despite the fact that I think "these 70 celebrities condone Palestinian genocide" is incredibly reductive I would encourage you to see these people as human beings, and more specifically idiot millionaires who are out of touch. I believe that Taika Waititi understands the Maori struggle and generally tries to be a nice liberal but ultimately he is a man who grew up in the 80s with a lot of money who has an interest in keeping that money. His gaff transphobia tweets (which I didn't think were that bad considering he made it in 2013 and wasn't even talking about trans women, but they were still transphobic) and his pearl clutching during the BLM riots made this abundantly clear (both of these incidents are Taika Twitter originals that people have sent me trying to get me to hate him and I saw both of them and was like "that's what I thought you'd say old man"), and the fact that he married Rita "blackfish" Ora. I'm way less plugged in to what Jordan Peele is doing because I've never had an anon send me his call out post but I'm going to assume that the same thing is true of him: he understands the struggle of black people in the United States, despite this moment of basedness I probably politically disagree with him on many many counts. As for Jack Black he donates to autism speaks so he's coming for me and the Palestinians. Although that said so does Gaga and I'm still very much a fan of her.

I've basically had to come to terms with the fact that no celeb that I like the work of agrees with me about politics because all of them are rich and I am a communist. That's not going to stop me from liking their work, it's not going to stop me from bothering some of them at cons when I get the chance. Because again they're just guys. And most guys are idiots. I am an idiot about a lot of things. We don't expect Taika Waititi or Jordan Peele to know about every conflict in the world we expect them to make entertaining and perhaps insightful movies. I am not here because I think Taika agrees with me on all things. I am here because I want to watch a rom com about gay men who murder people, one of whom is just like me for real.

Anyway do your research

[clove-pinks]

Mutuals and followers, what was your best parasocial relationship with a deceased historical person in 2023??

Hands down mine is Alfred M. Lorrain. The Helm, the Sword, and the Cross is the greatest War of 1812 memoir I've ever read. It's hilarious in parts, it's heartbreaking: I am exploding with wanting to talk about the things he describes! The horrors of war and nationalist, anti-Indigenous propaganda, but also so much about food and music, and Lorrain has a great ear for dialog.

[andreablog2]

I just think it’s stupid that the dumbest most run of the mill Americans think they can solve any geopolitical issue and get parasocially invested in it like some kind of fantasy football. The propaganda is just so strong.

[pommunist]

Going off of this one anon that said something about never working in a real environment... first of all, that anon spoke nothing but truths and I totally agree with everything they said. Now what I wanted to say was to your response, line by line.

"Fact is that we’re almost two months after things went public and these signs are nowhere to be seen." Firstly, multiple CCs have said changes have been done behind the scenes and trust in the process. We won't see these changes, because we aren't working internally. This makes sense.

"I think it’s not abnormal to want to be sure these things aren’t happening anymore before they continue supporting it" There is no proof of things being this way. As a matter of fact, the admins that we know of that are still on the project, are enjoying their time and making changes of going back to normal. Most of the statements of mistreatment come from people who worked months ago, before this was made public. Currently, the fact that things are slowly returning to normal, is a very good sign. This means that things are stabilizing behind the scenes.

"Voicing criticism can also be a way to try to avoid problems being swept under the rug as it had been until Léa shared her experience" This is also true, you are correct. However, there is nothing new to be talked about. This is like beating a dead horse. We know the treatment was bad. We know the conditions were horrible. However, now it's being fixed and worked upon. This we know is the case now. Therefore, talking about old subjects eventually gets tiring for everyone involved and stops being productive. At this point, it's just public venting.

"as long as it’s with respect of everyone involved." This is entirely true. Except nobody respects Q in all of this. Nobody extends this respect to Q, who also got taken advantage of. It is unfair for him as well and nobody is defending him. If people do defend him, then suddenly they're harassed, they don't care about workers rights, etc. and it's what's causing this divide now. Nobody can defend Q -not even CCs, anymore - without getting treated like shit. Look what happened with Tubbo, who gets treated like a child who doesn't know anything. Look at Missa, who felt personally hurt by attacks made on Q. He wasn't even involved and he felt horrible about it all. Everyone who says "respect everyone involved" ends up not extending that respect to Q. I am not implying that you personally attack Q, but I have seen several people who say this exact line, then go to attack Q. Tweets calling Q white, posting his address, his phone number, full name, etc. get thousands of likes. And people saying "hey this is weird" end up getting swarmed.

"And people keep being angry because they keep hoping for the project to improve, without getting signs it will." The issue here is that we have gotten signs. From the admins making their projects on the QSMP, from CCs talking about their good experiences, those are all good signs. But nobody takes those good signs as truth, for some reason. We have been getting these good signs but they're brushed off as "they don't know everything" or "this isn't what I wanted to see" which is parasocial as hell. I don't know how to put it any other way but it's insanely parasocial to demand to see such specific changes from the QSMP. It doesn't align with what you think should be done. You don't even know what's going on behind the scenes, like, at all. Anyone on Twitter making "new" statements are all from people who aren't even in the project anymore. Because these are coming out now, people have this false impression that nothing changes. When in reality, nobody knows what's going on right now except those still involved. Like Pierre, like Phil. Who both know more than you or I ever will. And it should stay that way. I don't want to know the extent of what either of them know. Because it should stay confidential. I, as a viewer, shouldn't even know half of this. I shouldn't ever know this unless I am a worker there. This wasn't even intended to be made public, it never should have been. This was going to be handled already. Pierre and Q both said that they were planning on dealing with this. This was made public for zero reason. The truth is, complaining isn't going to get anyone anywhere. It's like trying to clean up a mess and you have someone in your ear complaining about how long it's taking you to clean despite you trying your damn hardest to clean.

To end this statement off, I do not intend for this to be some kind of attack on you personally. It isn't an attack at all, to be quite frank, this is moreso to the arguments you presented that I have seen splayed across Twitter, Tumblr, anywhere. I truly think this constant complaining and constant detail-orientation is getting nobody anywhere. All this is doing is just distracting from the big picture:

Q put someone in charge of a project, whom he falsely trusted.

As a result of this, for about a year, this person created horrible working conditions and used their position of power to hide most of this (or the full gravity of the situation) from Q.

Q was made aware of this, and was planning the proper steps to deal with this privately.

However, this was made public for no real reason, and now he has to deal with this while dealing with the public eye, misinformation, and also privately too.

Due to people leaving and leaking certain details, he cannot be as transparent as he wants to be.

He is also dealing with legal cases which prohibit how much he can say, also limiting which people can get the information he can say.

Although the operations within QSMP are slightly turbulent, things are being done slowly to stabilize them, which includes garnering funds to pay back the people who were exploited and insufficiently paid.

That's the entire story. People are so wrapped up in details that they forget everything that led to this. Again, this wasn't directed specifically towards you, I have nothing against you. But some arguments you presented have their counterarguments as well and I wanted to present them.

man what an ask to wake up to after opening tumblr at 7am uh

First link to the post you’re referring to anon because I still stand with everything I said AND might repeat some of it here :

-I’m glad some ccs have said things are moving behind the scenes, I’m not doubting their words. However I don’t make my personal opinion based on what a cc says. There is nothing wrong with withholding support to a project until there is any concrete indication that things are solved. Already pissed I did so for almost a year, won’t make the mistake twice !

-There was no proof of things being bad for 10 months before admins came out with their stories, we trusted that they were being treated fairly because there was no reason to think otherwise, look where that got us. "Most of the statements of mistreatment come from people who worked months ago" well not only do we know that there are admins who are still within the project that are not being communicated with, but maybe the reason most statements come from people who used to work for Qstudios is because since then at least 50 people have been fired/had to quit ?

-"At this point it’s just public venting" Yes, maybe, and ? People who are angry about this don’t owe patience, productivity or anything to the QSMP. I would argue that Qstudios could fix everything perfectly overnight and people would still be allowed to be angry that it even happened.

-About Quackity I’m not sure I see your point here because obviously it’s stupid to go harass, insult, threaten him or anything close to that. It’s different from actual criticism about his actions and negligence. I can have no respect towards his work as a company owner while also believe he deserves basic human decency ?

Let’s not forget that yes, he might have been fucked over by that One admin, but also the repeated mistreatments over months was made possible because neither Quackity nor anyone else was keeping an eye on what was going on behind the scenes.

-Once again, ccs talked positively about it before, admins were doing projects before, and yet things were shit. When I say signs of things improving I mean ex admins being contacted, statements that those still working are doing so with an actual legal framing and protection.

It is not parasocial to ask that a company upholds workers rights and have something to show they’re doing so. Wouldn’t that make the goddamn union parasocial ? 😭

And I’m glad if some of the admins still currently working are able to do so in the right conditions, obviously not wishing for more people to be mistreated. Doesn’t change the fact that those who have been have not seen any improvement of their situation. Plus we know that even before everything came out, not everyone was treated the same.

Again, this was not made public for zero reason. It was made public as attempts from the admins at solving it internally had been met with silence.

Complaining does get you somewhere. Admins complaining and people using their voices to shine light on their statements and the issues they raised got that Quackity talked about it and started to make changes. Complaining about and withholding support from a company do hold them accountable to a certain extent, and push them to improve the work conditions. Workplace abuse thrives under silence and people keeping their mouth shut.

To reuse your metaphor about cleaning : If you break a glass and start cleaning the shards, people can still point that the glass is broken, and they can still complain about the cleaning if you’re doing a sloppy job at it.

About your recap of events, I have already talked about some points but also :

-The "leak" argument just has to stop for real. Not only it is incredibly inaccurate to use that word to talk about admins sharing what they went through, if you truly want to fix stuff you shouldn’t care first about your actions being revealed.

-Any admins who are to ask about fair payment shouldn’t have to wait until enough merch is sold or whatever. As a victim you shouldn’t have to be patient with the company and wait for them to get their shit together before you start getting some consideration.

tldr i guess : Cool that you’re able to fully trust a company that is responsible for unlawful treatment of their workers for months based on Quackity saying "don’t worry guys things are changing", but not me tho !

[insanepoll]

samarie propaganda masterpost! i’ll update after each round

reblogs: 1x.

[ID: white slide with a picture of samarie on the left side. above her, reads, “she’s so.” next to her are 4 text boxes. the first one reads, “Local stalker girl has no chill and is absolutely radiant i love she.” the second one reads, “Stalker. Kills Marina’s dad and is like ‘I did this so we could run away and get married’ and Marina’s like ‘sorry, do I know you?’“ the third one reads, “She’s a psychic stalker who kills someone’s dad based on reading her thoughts of disdain for him.“ the fourth one is a screenshot of tags that read, “#prev is right she is essentially the president of parasocial relationships.” /End ID.]

[altocat]

so i'm trying to get back into the swing of things after almost a decade of being out of ffvii fandom and ever crisis has rekindled a very powerful desire to write and write until my fingers fall off. so i'd like to ask, since you're in the tags and seem quite knowledgeable: what is your opinion of genesis's writing in crisis core?

i've always been of the opinion he was woefully mishandled, and i'm currently trying to reconcile what we were given with what i assume they were going for. got about 2k of a fic with a slightly difficult to explain premise written so far, but sephiroth is pre-nibelheim in post-advent children time (no dirge of cerberus) where genesis is about a decade older than him now. and they're navigating the fallout of the last time they saw each other.

i'm using a lot of what we're learning about sephiroth to color their relationship, too -- my boyfriend skillfully pointed out that it feels like genesis may have developed a parasocial attachment to the version of sephiroth that shinra fed him through propaganda, and when he met the real thing he was let down and became resentful.

so i'm wondering, how do i handle it without making it into a personal vendetta against how horribly i felt genesis was written? heh

The writing on Genesis in CC is....yeesh.

I'd chalk that up to many things--general mishandling, the fact that Genesis is only limited to appearing when Zack is present, and some translation issues from the Japanese language over to English. Lots of his arc as a character doesn't really feel earned, or they don't take enough time to establish his good qualities to make the player care about him.

It's important to note that, despite the fact that the game failed to shed proper light on this, Genesis DOES have many good qualities. He's kind to the lower ranking soldiers, whom he reads to. He and Sephiroth, for all their rivalry, seemed to be close at one point. He was presumably a good friend to Angeal. And even Gackt himself has said that Genesis has a "sweet" streak hidden beneath all that bluster.

It's equally important to note that the Genesis we see in CC is desperate, dying, and under the influence of the Degradation Process. Angeal himself points out that the process seems to dull the mind, clouding it. Sephiroth may or may not have some variation of this as well once his Jenova cells are activated in Nibelheim. So Genesis is really not "himself", warped and twisted, trying to preserve his life, angry and bitter at what Shinra did to him. He's at his lowest point emotionally and psychologically, hence why he does what he does. The writing....just doesn't convey it well.

As for his relationship with Sephiroth, I feel like Sephiroth was closest to him out of all his friends, and Genesis' previous idolization of Sephiroth is the primary reason why he WANTS to be the best. He wants to beat Seph to prove that he's WORTHY of being around Seph. As a boy, Seph was his hero. He HAS to surpass him or become his equal to prove that he can stand toe to toe with the person he feels is a real hero. The dilemma is that Sephiroth never wanted to be a hero and would have always valued Genesis just as he is. Genesis already had what he was looking for...he just didn't realize it until it was too late. They're a complicated pair, with lots of miscommunication, unresolved tension, and poor decision making shared between them. I think they needed to talk to each other more than anything else. Because there was something genuine there. They could have kept it, they could have shared the apples just like Genesis always wanted.

Post-CC, I see Genesis carrying a lot of guilt. Both his friends are "dead" and he basically kicked off the events that led to it. He's been pardoned by Minerva and will now act as the planet's hero and protector, but at the cost of the people he loved. There's no real room for arrogance anymore. He's a hero not out of pride, but shame and remorse. He's tired, lonely, and now fully recognizes the pain of what heroism truly is. He's "grown up" in a sense, become a different person. Crisis Core is a coming of age story in many ways, not just for Zack but for Genesis as well. It's too bad they kinda bungled the delivery.

Hope all of that helps! Genesis is actually a really interesting character when you dissect him. He's sorta become one of my top faves over time, even if I fully recognize him as a complete trashlord. But I think there's more to him deep, deeeeep down.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Kairi

kairi is the third protagonist of the kingdom hearts series and the third member of the destiny trio, alongside fan favorites sora and riku. sora/riku shippers HATE kairi, and will go out of their way to discount her at every turn. the hate for her ranges from typical "she's a boring bitch" to fans of soriku making five-hour long video essays reassuring their fellow shippers that the big bad kairi won't show up in the next installment – to quote one video, "she's in a box. she's on the shelf. four walls, no door." kairi is the greatest bogeyman the soriku fandom has ever known, to the point where most of said video essays and fanon meta posts focus not on why sora and riku should get together, but rather on why they don't like kairi.

Literally has a 100+ page Google doc fan theory writing her out of the narrative and putting all of her (few) canonical accomplishments onto half of the popular m/m ship (soriku). Don't even get me started on how her memory was completely written out of the canon plot of re:coded. KH is a nightmare to explain so dude trust me she is THE victim of yaoi

She is so fundamental to the plot and themes and narratives of game and yet it is near impossible to find anything about her thats not ship bashing pre-mlm with the other two characters. I dont even care if she ends up with one of the main characters i just want fans to see her as a cool character to love or like, anything other than “annoying comphet girl.” You can write your mlm but pleaae stop inventing comphet where it doesnt exist. She does not even get to spend time with sora ever?? Why does everyone see her as a threat and a thing to destroy?? Let her have friends so help me

Misa Amane

she gets treated in-canon the way fandoms treat female characters that Threaten an m/m ship. it's like, "oh why don't you go sit in the corner and be pretty, misa, while the Men have intelligent conversation and pretend they aren't ten seconds from fucking each other, doesn't that sound nice?" it's infuriating. and MAYBE it's better now but i remember her getting treated the same way in fanfiction too, like we all need to do just as badly by our female secondary characters as fucking tsugumi ohba, but with the added insult of making her be alternately oblivious of the relationship between light and L or actively trying to sabotage it—incompetently, of course, because god forbid misa be allowed dignity or moments of cleverness.

she's one of the first characters I think of when I consider old school fandom misogyny. The annoying bitch and clingy crazy gf allegations were AFTER HER ASS. She's also a lot more intelligent than people gave her credit for, but most seem inclined to take the Very Biased word of our unreliable, narcissistic narrator and his homoerotic arch nemesis and claim that just because she's bubbly and into romance that she's also a complete moron. Which is blatantly untrue. Everyone was afraid of Misa girlbossing too hard. Killing people and devoting yourself to the deranged twink of your dreams even though you know he'll never love you back??? Having a hardcore goth aesthetic and being so Hot even literal Death Gods are into you?? God forbid women do ANYTHING!

Not only is she the victim of yaoi culture, she is the victim of early 2000s misogyny by an author that wanted to introduce a girl character because he knew his male rivals were getting too homoerotic. She is a goth bimbo icon who portrays what I think is one of the few callouts for stan culture and what parasocial relationships can do to both the stan and the idol. The fact that she is a toxic fan of Kira and also hot, funny, sociable is tragic in its own way, which I think the author did try to touch on but was too misogynistic too really get through. Of course, she was reduced to villain status by the fandom and anime alike because she got in the way of the supposed romance in their psychological horror anime.

[paperstorm]

While of course we don't truly know him, from what I've seen, I think Ronen is someone who does not think deeply or critically about politics and is easily swayed by propaganda particularly when it confirms his beliefs--which is not an excuse, of course! I wish so much that he would do better. I've noticed in the past that he's always been very positive about the Biden administration to the point where he's often giving over the top praise to things that are bare minimum/performative at best. Even when it comes to issues regarding climate, which is something I think Ronen feels very passionately about, he seems to easily believe what politicians are telling him even when they're taking only performative actions. I really hope that he will learn and grow in the future, but I think there's little chance of that right now in the midst of this horrible situation. The more pushback he gets, the more entrenched he's going to become in his position. I know a lot of people have tried to educate him in a well meaning way, but I don't think he is going to be receptive to that, at least not now.

Honestly you could say this about easily 95% of celebrities. He's not unique in this. Most of them are posting about politics and current events because the parasocial relationships of social media have made them think that they have to, because their fans yell at them if they dont, etc. I don't think this makes him a horrible person, but yes. I don't think he's particularly locked into the intricacies of most of these issues. I don't think any of them are. Which is a really good argument for why we shouldn't use actors and singers as a moral compass or as the arbiters of our political opinions.