#western arrogance

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[downmystreeandupyours]

(via Dictators, Autocrats, Fake Democrat, and Major Idiots)

[utilitycaster]

Wizards and paladins are my favorite classes because of the built in story elements that clearly shape the characters, but also because, on some level, if a character isn't, to quote Jonas Spahr, "arrogant, prideful, and sanctimonious" what is even the point.

[euphoniouspandemonium]

all online discourse about "good" vs "bad" books and writing taking skill would be solved if people saw the ability to entertain as a skill lmao. every day a "thought daughter" shits on rom coms after reading three literary fiction books without realizing that comparing the two genres is useless because they each fundamentally require different skills — as well as being written for a completely different goal; our hypothetical rom com authors were simply not trying to write a philosophical piece on suffering, they were trying to write a rom com, so what's the point in believing one is inferior to the other when neither of them is trying to be anything like or unlike the other? Of course tiktok has had a weird annoying effect on publishing by turning it into a tropey capitalist shitshow but that's not the fault of rom com authors, it's the fault of tiktok.

[dougielombax]

“iF I doN’T STeaL yOuR HomE tHEn SoMeOne eLSe wiLL¡”

Okay.

That is NOT the defence that you think it is.

(BuT tHEy MAde thE DESeRt bLOom¡)

Plus you’re still stealing their home. You even admitted that much.

Who else would it have been otherwise? Pray tell.

Who is this hypothetical “someone else”?

Some other settlers? Bedouins? The Druze? Kurds? The Mice? Martians? The Golgafrinchans?

I remember reading about how Turks and Kurds in the 1920s said the same shit to Armenians and Assyrians who they had forced out of their homes a decade prior!*

(At least the Kurds recognise now that it was wrong)

(*That is when they weren’t demolishing their homes or businesses and building suburbs over the mass graves and ruins of confiscated land and property)

Away with that shite!

That’s dogshit colonial rhetoric. At best.

It wasn’t any more defensible when they did it, nor was it when the British and their stupid loyalist thralls were doing it in my own country.

Be rid of it. And maybe don’t steal someone else’s home either.

What’s next? Are you gonna bulldoze their cemeteries and heritage sites? Saying they made you do it? (OH WAIT!)

Get in the bin with that shite.

Starting yesterday.

And if you can’t turn away from this shit and be better or even try, then you will die stupid, and die in ignorance.

(Perhaps even out of spite as some have predictably chosen to do because they don’t dare think they might be wrong)

Be rid of this shit.

[manderleyfire]

You'll always be here for me, won't you?

[trans-phone-eater]

I'm gonna be honest at times things reaffirming that my life isnt bad make me feel slightly worse, because It makes me feel like im just being ungrateful and selfish and mean because im still suicidal despite the fact that I am living an objectively better life compared to the average person on earth.

[russell-crowe]

i consider tornadoes to be a pretty legitimate risk when it comes to natural disasters in europe, but people tend to not have much of a grasp on them occurring outside of tornado alley in the usa. i follow this guy for a couple years now and he is a huge recommendation to follow if you are interested in tornadoes. i am grateful that he did such a well-researched video on tornadoes in europe, and i am also kinda glad that the areas he marked as most active, are the same areas i personally have considered to be remarkably active compared to others. definitely worth a watch!

[beevean]

Sonic is so Japanese they used several American and other Western influences and inspiration when conceptualizing him, including basing his character design off of classic rubber hose cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.

"Sonic is too Japanese" is literally a wrong take. No matter how you slice it, Sonic is infamous for having being designed to appeal to American audiences (to the point that SoJ wasn't happy with the US still redesigning him lol), and for being more popular outside of Japan. There are videos about it.

Now, granted, there are Japanese influences in Sonic too, that is inevitable, especially starting from the Adventure era. But it's far from being completely unapproachable to Western audiences, and there is tangible proof of it.

[radical-rapscallion]

my toxic trait is that i have strong and negative feelings towards quebecers

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocqueville_effect

The Tocqueville effect (also known as the Tocqueville paradox) is the phenomenon in which, as social conditions and opportunities improve, social frustration grows more quickly. The effect is based on Alexis de Tocqueville's observations on the French Revolution and later reforms in Europe and the United States. Another way to describe the effect is the aphorism "the appetite grows by what it feeds on". For instance, after greater social justice is achieved, there may be more fervent opposition to even smaller social injustices than before.

Pay your Uber or Uber Eats driver, your college’s gardener, your company’s cleaner, or the cleaner who works for the hand car wash for an hour of their time to tell you their story.

[rosieposiepie]

Watching the new Percy Jackson episode, and while by no means is the show perfect, I do love how they updated the blending of Greek mythology and the American Gothic for social commentary.

What I mean is Echidna, the mother of monsters, is some respectable-looking vaguely southern white woman who is able to convince the police on the train that three kids shattered a train window and used those institutions to isolate the kids so she can target them and scare them for the chimera's hunt. The way that the police especially treat Annabeth. Now, as a young black girl, she has to know how to ask if they're getting arrested, and gets called out by the police for her tone.

And then, at the St. Louis Arch, we see Grover upset because of the museum, which is basically a monument to Manifest Destiny (literally, there's a shot where the words are in full display in the background). And while they say, "Grover is upset because he doesn't like it when people hurt animals," they explicitly depict America's colonization and destruction of indigenous communities as The Bad Thing. It adds another layer of flavor for the whole "Pan is missing" - it's not just about Climate Change. It's about the extermination of indigenous groups (the centaurs they saw on the train, the reminder that there used to be more of them until humans started killing them). They say "humans" are bad, but they're showing us Western/American colonizers.

Also, a rare yet interesting moment of conflict between Annabeth as a daughter of Athena and Grover as a Satyr. Annabeth insists that the museum's commodifying and glorifying of American colonization is "not what the arch is actually about, it's about architecture and math," but Athena is the goddess who protects social institutions and a patron goddess of the state, law, order, industry, and war. The Industrial Revolution and Western social institutions definitely contributed to colonialism; just saying. We also see in this episode that Athena can be arrogant and cruel - letting a monster go after her own daughter because she was embarrassed.

Anyway, idk. Maybe I'm overthinking this but these were the things that popped out to me on first watch, and now that I think about them more, I would love a continuation of these kinds of themes and tropes in future seasons, if we get them.

[confessionsofanarcheologist]

Something I’ve noticed about archeology in America is that the companies where I am at seem so desperate for workers.

You don’t even have to be qualified, they will train you. Even if you lie and say you’re qualified to do analysis sometimes they won’t check to ensure you are. It’s terrifying.

We only get one chance to record everything properly. Let’s get it done right. Hired qualified people please.

People are qualified through education, experience, or both.

[hanazawat]

puts my degree to good use and codes the nonverbals in mp100

[the-eeveekins]

I'm so proud of how Sulemio fans have come togther to support these girls, but also defend them from the flood of misinformation and bullshit. We're pouring post after post of love explaining who they are, why they're important and why we love them.

I'm familiar with Destiel because of the memes and it being one of the most infamous cases of Queerbait/Bury Your Gays around, but never interacted with the fandom (why would I?). And man like... the arrogance? They're so dismissive of Sulemio as "generic anime girls I've never heard of" and act like we should vote for them and hand them the win on a silver platter because of something like tumblr history or a the number of A03 fics. Those "generic anime girls" you've never heard from are currently kicking your ass, and it just show how much you underestimate the competition. Competition that beat Hannigram, Avatrice, Bubbline and Ineffable Husbands. The way they're so dismissive of anime and don't even know what Mobile Suit Gundam is is very telling that they look down on any form of media outside a very western/live-action sphere.

The majority of them can't give a reason why you should vote for Destiel beyond Tumblr History, like any of us should give a damn about that? I care about media with queer couples being important FROM THE START, and getting happy endings married to each other. Destiel's history has nothing to do with my fandom experience, especially as a sapphic women who loves yuri.

[jonathanrogersartist]

How 'The Acolyte' Disappointed Me, and Why the Themes of 'Star Wars' Matter

Someone recently commented on my 'On the Dark Side, the Jedi and the Moral Decay of Star Wars' essay with these words: 

"A lot of words for saying 'I don't like the newer media, but I won't get into specifics as to why.'"

Okay! I shall then finally clarify those specifics....

That first essay has, so far, been my biggest success on this blog, and it's attracted a number of interesting responses. Full disclosure: I wrote that fresh off the heels of feeling depressed over how the Acolyte ended, and after reading/listening to several of Leslye Headland's interviews, where she went into great detail about her ideas behind the show's choices, the themes she's trying to get across, and what personal baggage she brings to Star Wars. 

Why was I depressed?

Because the show's finale ended with the deeply problematic implication that Osha, by killing Sol and joining Qimir, has achieved true self-actualization. As Leslye herself put it, it's a 'positive corruption arc.' Interesting way to phrase it. 

Furthermore, Vernestra's actions that frame Sol for several murders, all to protect her own reputation, and to avoid oversight by the Senate, confirmed one of the things that I was really worried this show would do as soon as we began learning plot details, which is that it's leaning into this very persistent edgelord take that the Jedi are actually big ol' bastards not worth seeing as heroes. 

It's the Dave Filoni gospel of the Jedi Order as a morally broken and fundamentally hypocritical institution, a decaying monument to religious hubris, who brought about their own destruction with their arrogance and so-called rejection of emotion making them lack empathy. 

This is, as many of my followers know already, a giant misreading of George's storyline in the prequels, and what he was actually telling us about the Jedi's philosophy and code. And in my experience, it gets us some vicious pushback when we try to inform fans of it, even if we back it up with proof of George's words. 

George really did intend the Jedi to be the ultimate example of what a brave, wise, and all-loving hero should be, and are very specifically inspired by Buddhist monks. They do not 'repress emotions': they learn to regulate their emotions, so as to not let the negative ones feed the Dark Side, and they have the moral fortitude to focus on their spiritual duty. They're professionals that have dedicated themselves to a higher calling, and who still feel and display the same emotions we all feel, unless I watched very different movies from everyone else. We see that Jedi characters can still crack jokes, cry when they are sad, become scared or anxious, feel strong love and loyalty to their peers, and can even be righteously angry in some situations BUT always knowing when to pull back.

The Jedi of the prequels were victims of manipulation by Palpatine, and were caught in between a rock-and-a-hard-place with the Clone War, and they were ultimately destroyed not by their own actions, but by the treachery of Anakin Skywalker, who failed to overcome his own flaws because he refused to really follow the Jedi teachings, and was gaslit by Palpatine for decades on top of that. 

Leslye's take on Star Wars, based on how she wrote the story of the Acolyte, is that "yup, the Jedi were doomed to destroy themselves by being hypocritical and tone-deaf space cops," and she also outright compared them to the Catholic Church (this reeks of Western bias and misunderstanding of Eastern religions). The one that really stunned me, was when she said she designed Qimir to be her own mouthpiece for the experience of being queer and suppressed, who isn't allowed to just be her authentic self in a restrictive world. Which, to me, implies that Leslye wanted to depict the Dark Side as actually a misunderstood path to self-actualization that the Jedi, in keeping with their dogma of repressing emotions, only smear as 'evil.' 

Let me remind you all: Qimir is officially referred to as a Sith Lord, by Manny Jacinto, by Leslye, etc. And what are the Sith, exactly? 

Space fascists. Intergalactic superpowered terrorists. Dark wizard Nazi-coded wannabe dictators, whose ideology is of might-makes-right, survival of the fittest, and the pursuit of power for power's sake. To depict followers of this creed as an analogy for marginalized people who have literally been targeted and murdered throughout history BY the real-life inspirations for the Sith.... I find revolting and tone-deaf by Leslye. 

SO.... seeing how that show ended, and reading up on how Leslye intended it to be interpreted (Osha's 'triumph' over the 'toxic paternalism' of Sol/the Jedi in general), really put me in a funk, because deep down, I could just sense that this was not at all compatible with the ethos of Star Wars. It made me go on a deep-dive into the BTS of the writing of the prequels and George's ideas about the Jedi, and it's how I discovered the truth that Dave Filoni has been pretty egregiously misrepresenting George's themes for several years now, usurping George's words with his own personal fanfic about the motivations of characters like Anakin, or Qui-Gon, or the Jedi Council, etc. 

His influence on the franchise has caused this completely baseless take on the Jedi to become so widespread as to rewrite history for modern fans. Who are utterly convinced now that this anti-Jedi messaging WAS George's vision all along, and they get real mad at you if you show them actual proof of that being a lie. 

And the Acolyte is perpetuating this twisting of the very core of Star Wars. This is what I meant by the 'moral decay of Star Wars.' 

The Star Wars saga was made by George Lucas in 1977 to accomplish these specific tasks: 

To remind people of what it really means to be good.

What evil actually looks like, and how it comes from our fears and greed.

To teach kids how to grow up and choose the right path that will make them loving, brave, honest people that stand up to tyrants.

To give the world a story that returns to classic mythological motifs and is fundamentally idealistic, to defy the uptick in cynical and nihilistic storytelling after the scandals of Vietnam and Watergate broke Americans' belief in there being such a thing as actual heroes anymore. 

THAT is the soul of Star Wars. That is what George meant for this remarkably creative universe to say with its storytelling. But I sincerely think that what the Acolyte told, was that morality is relative, the heroes of this saga are actually bastards, the fascist death-cult is misunderstood, and a young woman being gaslit into joining said death-cult is a triumphant girlboss moment. When it actually comes across as the tragedy of a broken person choosing the wrong path that will only make her miserable, full of hatred and powerlust, and hurt innocent people along the way. 

The Acolyte betrayed one of George's most critical lessons: that the Dark Side ruins people, and if you want to truly become your best self, you must choose the path of Light, and the Jedi are the ones who have best mastered that path. So if the future of Star Wars is to continue framing the Jedi and their teachings as some corrupt and immoral system that is making the galaxy worse, then I would rather stick to rewatching the classic scripture of Episode 1-6. George wrote a complete and satisfying story, that is thematically consistent, and in my opinion should have been allowed to rest. 

I will not hate on new fans that love the new material, but I will pity them if they really think any of this is actually faithful to George's vision (they may very well simply not care, either, which troubles me too), and I am afraid of a show like Acolyte teaching young people to see the Jedi's philosophy as wrong, and the Sith as having a point. 

(P.S. I have a moral duty to clarify this, given the discourse around the show: No, this is not a problem with 'wokeness,' or diversity, or representation; that side of the fandom is very sick in the head and not to be taken seriously. 

It's a problem with Leslye's themes and tastes as a storyteller, being fundamentally against the ethos of Star Wars and how it soured the entire show in hindsight for me... a show that I was actually really liking, before the finale dropped its thematic nuke.)