#pointless arguments

[cult-of-the-eye]

Inknow you posted this a while ago but i would love to get into a pointless argument once im back from the shops

FUCK YEAH. DOES PINEAPPLE BELONG ON PIZZAS, IF SO, IN WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES????

[greatwyrmgold]

I hate arguments between people who say that mental illnesses have systemic causes and ones who say they'd still exist even in a utopia. Yes! Both of these things can be correct!

On one hand, there's more than one kind of mental illness. Autism will continue to exist at basically the same rate no matter what we do, but anxiety rates fluctuate as we get more or fewer things to be anxious about. Both of these fall under the banner of Mental Health.

On the other hand, individual mental illnesses can have multiple causes. Some people are depressed for purely environmental reasons; some people's brains just don't make brain juice right; most have a little of both.

So yes, loads of people having the same mental problems can be a sign of how our society is failing, and also mental illness is a fact of life our society needs to accommodate. Both of these statements are true, but neither is accurate without the other. Making systemic changes that pretend we can solve all mental illness is A Problem, but so is trying to make the world a better place for neurodivergent people without considering those systemic conditions.

It's like the old "Why do you hate waffles??" meme, except if pancakes and waffles were incomplete without each other, and also lives hang in the balance.

[aaternum-a]

"   Okay, okay, OKAY! LISTEN! I’m just saying if I had to choose .. I’m sorry, you’re gonna have to fall off the cliff. I’m saving the alien. An alien doesn’t have earthly survival skills. They’ll perish; become a pool of bleugh! You can survive! What’s not to understand? I believe in you. This is a compliment! Can’t you like .. y’know make a javelin from the rocks that break your fall?   ”

[buggachat]

honestly just in general it's very exhausting to try to analyze media that is literally meant to be analyzed, only for the replies to be filled with people arguing not against your analysis, but against the premise that the media can be analyzed at all.

i don't even know what to say about it without starting to really betray my frustration, so i'll just settle with— just don't engage with analysis posts? I'm serious. if you're typing a response to a media analysis post, reread what you've written and ask yourself "is this comment/response against the very concept of analyzing the media at all?" and if the answer is yes then delete it all and go sit in the shame corner. throw your curtains away if you want to so bad and stop telling me that I'm not allowed to hum and haw at the fact mine are blue

[variousqueerthings]

i do think that specifically david tennant being very openly supportive of the trans community has had an interesting effect -- because usually im kinda like "it is nice to know that people whose work i enjoy don't want me dead" and that's kinda my level of (at this point) quite cynical engagement with what a celebrity or artist does or does not think about transness, because these days it feels like it's almost fashionable for well-known (or post-well-known) people to come out of the wordwork and say what they think about trans people, which can get very stressful in its own way (the amount of headlines that try to be misleading or just plain don't say and so you're just like "ok i guess this week i have to find out if [spins wheel] thinks i deserve rights")

but david tennant has a different feeling to it. and to be fair, there are plenty of people with skin in the game, who absolutely deserve to and ought to speak out on behalf of their children/partners/community/friends/family/etc. and im always happy to see these people speak, and dt is included in that list as well

but david tennant is veeery specific in this here country of terf island, in which the labour party will openly state that it will allow certain book writers to affect their policies on trans people, and that's partly because of the effect above in which "having opinions on trans rights seems to be a celebrity game that keeps you relevant, which includes ex prime minister tony blair making his opinion known (hint, it wasn't a good one)" but also because david tennant is known as a national icon to rival that of whatsherface

he was the main actor on doctor who, in the top three, if not very top of british broadcasting iconography that exists. he's one of this generation's most famous shakespearian actors, the other thing that this country-as-culture is most proud of. he's a mainstay in children's film and tv, a standout in modern british crime drama (broadchurch, des), and that's not mentioning things like jessica jones, good omens, and star wars

this guy has no social media, and some of the biggest cultural capital in the uk today -- labour i believe it was made a twitter joke about him ousting the current prime minister as the doctor ahead of this week's election, because that's an iconic scene from doctor who

which means that when he openly calls transphobes whingy and asks them to shut up, there's a bit of a ripple... i mean what are you gonna do, get angry with the doctor? from doctor who??? the man who played a definitive hamlet????? the man who's just done rave reviewed performances of macbeth???? scrooge mcduck????????? this man who occasionally guests on cbeebies???????????

said prime minister and his party and hosts of transphobes go absolutely crazy every time he makes an appearance wearing new trans ally apparel, as if a. he sees any of that and b. it's a dignified response to a man saying, in essence, "i would like my kid to be safe and happy"

david tennant constantly making these statements, again and again, is a powerful voice in the modern fight for trans rights in the UK, in some ways unfortunately, because you wish trans people could have been heard before it got to this state and that it wasn't about being famous, but to be fair, he's also making that point again and again

it kind of feels like the first time in a long time that there's been proper pushback against transphobia in this country from a perspective that the transphobes can't dismiss so easily -- they can try but like. again, one side is a bunch of raving nonsense-spouters on a joke website who mostly belong to a party that's about to get decidedly ousted from the political scene, the other is beloved national icon and star of stage and screen, mr david tennant

of course, it doesn't hurt that the three main actors of harry potter and everyone else who's majorly involved in doctor who, past and present, is also supportive of trans rights, which maybe there's a separate point to be made about the strangeness of a mainstream tv show becoming a cultural battleground for peoples opinions on equal rights, especially now with ncuti gatwa at the helm, because i think some of what ive seen in relation to dw is more extreme than any piece of cultural media ive been alive to witness bigoted reactions to (including star trek), and ncuti gatwa as a black queer man is taking a hell of a lot of flack that is racist and homophobic

but labour... if you're inviting random artists to give you opinions on trans rights, david tennant is right there, and you know he'd make sure to bring along trans rights activists and professionals to get the space in the room they ought to have had all along

[lyonface]

Genuinely convinced that the people who love Ascended!Astarion and argue with people about him genuinely loving Tav the same way he did before, or it being his best ending over Spawn (in terms of character arc, not taste) legit only picked the enthusiastic options for Tav when dealing with him, and most certainly didn't break up with him and talk to him afterward. He says some downright chilling shit to a Tav who refused to become a spawn.

And like, sure, it's because he's hurt and he's coping to some degree. Astarion can be vicious even in a good mode, and Tav agreeing to help him ascend only to essentially abandon him is painful to deal with, but of all the shit for him to say??

Tav can argue that he's becoming like Cazador the night before, and he gets so hurt and angry if Tav says that, and it makes sense! It's a harsh thing to say, and even after that argument, no matter what, Astarion will be willing to let it go if Tav wants to stay together and agrees to become his Spawn. You can run through the entire dialogue tree again before it forces you to pick an out option, that's how desperate he is to keep them. But like goddamn how can you beat the accusations if you're willing to say shit like this?? A thing that could have easily come straight from Cazador!

Regardless, however, of his desperation, his real feelings, Ascended!Astarion is fundamentally different, in his mind, than how he used to be. Magic has literally corrupted him, changed what his body is capable of, the curse that he was given as a spawn is different now. Sure, Astarion didn't stop loving Tav the second the ritual was over, or the day after or the day after that, but even he knows he's changing, and rapidly, but he can only recognize so much of what's different, and everyone else can see what he can't. By his epilogue at the end of the game, he might as well be another vampire lord, just far, far more dangerous.

[6ft-under-beacon-hills]

Stiles: 'R' is the most menacing of sounds. That's why they call it 'murder' and not muckduck. Derek: Ok. Too many different words coming at me from too many different sentences.

[april]

"i'm not paying tumblr because its moderation is bad!" -> site does not make money -> content moderators are not hired -> moderation continues to be understaffed -> repeat

[mey-amor]

Why is clerith hated so much??

Both ships are canon 🫲😭🫱

Fighting over who cloud actually loved or loved more doesn’t make any sense! He loved both! This is how life goes sometimes! There isn’t just one person we fall for in our lives!

We should feel for cloud having lost the girl he once loved and cherished, and we should feel happy that he started to move forward and found love with Tifa.

This ongoing discourse baffles me! Like you’re both right?????? You’re both canon! There’s no evidence to the contrary!

[tweedfrog]

Thinking abt human sacrifice in westeros in ASOIAF I rlly rlly do love the idea that it was practiced openly in the north but died out (except on skagos allegedly) when the Andals came and now people view it as barbaric but it just happens en masse but they call it something else....Northerners tithing men before the beginning of winter and giving them to the Nights Watch based on luck of the draw....Southerners setting up whole tourney circuits and melee battles where men die brutally for entertainment. It's all still there you just call it a different thing!!!!

[admiral-arelami]

Canonically Bad Thrawn

Why are some people so obsessed with whether Thrawn is "good" or "bad"? This isn't middle school, where everything must be either/or, black or white, yes or no. These are false dichotomies. Not every work of literature exists to teach readers a "moral lesson." Good fiction rarely deals in moral absolutes. Nor, in fact, does real life. Readers are interested in morally dubious characters for a host of reasons, most of which have little or nothing to do with their real-life beliefs or actions. Hate to break it to you, but a hot, blue, *fictional* alien isn't the one responsible for the resurgence of real-life fascism. Thrawn isn't going to turn your impressionable teenager into a fascist or neo-Nazi. Most people who like Thrawn aren't fascists or neo-Nazis. Nor, I suspect, is Timothy Zahn a member of some secret fascist cult, promulgating conspiracy theories while he awaits the Apocalypse in his fortified bunker.

[mostlyghostlyy]

hear me out on a hannibal situation with cobble ........ youre a rookie special agent investigating the longlegs murders right before Carter took over the case, whos actually doing pretty well! youre in fact doing so well that youve worked your way into his mind, driving him mad and hes convinced you will either follow him to salvation or he'll drag you down into hell ..... i am #normal about freaks

This!!!

I think he would be so proud of you for finding all his perfectly placed clues. Or if you even partially decipher his code, he would be head over heels. Nobody has put this much consideration into him before, never this much effort. From pure labor alone, he's already half crazy for you.

Kobble really wasn't expecting to become this attached to you. He always enjoyed keeping tabs on his open cases, but something about you wormed its way into his brain, and now he's thinking about you nonstop. He'll be walking down the street, catching a glance at the newspaper. "Longlegs killer approaches imminent capture with new evidence!" He scoffs at the title. Then he sees the accompanied photo. His breath catches in his throat. It was a picture of you. Well, with you on the right side of the case leader, somewhat obscured. but you were there nonetheless. You're absolutely stunning. He buys the paper and cuts out the article, the photo of you pinned to his wall next to his posters. An honorary position above his bed.

He knows you're trying to make a name for yourself, and this is a hugely high profile case. So he would probably throw you a bone or two, every note he leaves you especially has a special doodle etched next to the "Longlegs" name. For Lee, it was the triangle, I think for you, he'd do a heart.

His letters to you would be about nothing more than his raging infatuation and about the devil. He would claim that he wants to save you, and the only way he can do that is if you bow. "Crimson or Clover, Angel" is always spelled out in perfect English at the end of every letter, before his signature and heart. He needs you to understand that it was Mr. Downstairs who brought you into his life (obviously as a gift for being a faithful servent.). And he is the same entity that can give you all that you desire. He only asks that you make the correct decision to join his ranks.

If you deny Kobble's pleading to join his religion, he would be furious. Spitting false promises of afterlife tortures. Doesn't change the fact that he is enamored with you, he will just have to try a little harder to convert you.

[vellichorom]

having said that, you guys realize the narrator sucks as a person right

[cruelsister-moved2]

i honestly think one thing gentile non-palestinian leftists need to do urgently is eradicate the idea from your mind that zionism is somehow good for jewish people. we pay lip service to the fact that antizionism isn't antisemitism, that jewish people aren't inherently associated with the state of israel, even that israel doesn't keep jews safe; yet the subtle implication that jews ultimately benefit from zionism creeps into our arguments.

zionism has fostered fundamentalism and pushed jewish communities globally to the right, marginalised and outright erased disaporic cultures, and has contributed to the near-disappearance of entire judaic languages. the zionist project exacerbates antisemitism and then warps discussions of it, encouraging the same dual-loyalty myths and racialised categorisation that were popular in nazi germany. it courts antisemitic christian fundamentalists who fund it because of their apocalyptic beliefs which ultimately involve the annihilation or conversion of all jews, and provides a smokescreen for antisemites who want to push jews from their own countries. and it isolates, incriminates, silences, and arrests the many, many jews who speak out against it.

i don't say this to try and decentre palestinian suffering at this time, hence why this isn't directed at palestinians, but i think it's incredibly important for the integrity of our arguments to recognise unequivocally that zionism is not beneficial to jewish people either.

[mewtwo24]

You know idk if it's just me being oblivious af but mxtx sure does enjoy putting her protags through the trolley problem when it comes to her works huh /j

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Biting everybody who calls Carol the group mom. Throttling everybody who says she's 'motherly' to grown men.