#what a load of nonsense

[thelassoway]

Ted Lasso S01E01 Pilot || Ted Lasso S03E03 4-5-1 & S03E07 The Strings That Bind Us

[kaldurcalm]

Someone shared a post about the pear of anguish, saying it was used to torture slaves, and I thought its design was interesting but something felt slightly off, so I looked it up.

The first thing you see when you look this thing up is that its usage is disputed.

Apparently the mechanism doesn't seem to work the way it's said to work? It's said that people would slowly enlarge the opening in order to spread an orifice wider and wider, and that it could even break jaws.

The thing is, this device does not seem to open in this way. It seems to spring open. The screw mechanism is for closing it.

I relayed this information, thinking this was someone who would actually care about fact checking. "It might not actually have worked in this way. Its usage is disputed."

For some fucking dadblamed reason, they took this as me... questioning the existence of racism? And denying the suffering of black people?

I do a little more digging, and it's basically the same thing over and over. One guy insists that it's totally a torture device, because why else would it be in torture chamber museums?

I don't know, buddy, maybe because people like to make up stories and scare others.

That's one running theory for the existence of this thing: people wanted a good story. They wanted to be able to sell that story in order to make money. So they made elaborate devices and charged people to see them, or displayed them in order to scare their guests.

This part of the speculation, by the way, is from medieval times. There are no modern accounts of this item's usage.

We have so many accounts of slavery. We have so many ways to spread information. We're still able to converse with some of the children of the people who are still alive. We can still see the documents they left during that time.

Why would they leave this out? If it were actually in use, why would they relay the whippings, the confinement, the rape, the starvation, the harsh working conditions, the lynchings, the forced assimilation, and just... not mention this part?

Their friend piled on. I told him my statement was based on the way the device functions, and not "white people wouldn't do that." I told them that I didn't expect better from him, because I didn't know him, but I did expect better from them.

Apparently this was me making assumptions.

Gonna be honest, I didn't read the entirety of their responses, because this sort of thing is maddeningly upsetting to me. I thought I was safe to say something because, when I accidentally sent them a video by Alexis Nelson, they called it funny and informative. I know that doesn't seem like much, but... honestly, Alexis isn't going to be up everyone's alley, and sometimes that's due to bigotry. So I thought they would actually care, and not be mad about being checked. I've been in that situation plenty of times, and I normally don't say anything if I don't think I'm going to get through. I only say something if I have hope for that person.

I thought I might actually have a potential friend, and said person responded to "Hey this information might not be accurate" with... honestly, I can barely even parse the way they worded things? Something about slavery happening whether it was disputed or not.

I just wanted to fact check an unsourced facebook post.

[kirby-the-gorb]

[aquilamage]

I haven’t been insane about Vi enough lately so time to pour out some random thoughts. free association thinking time:

been thinking about her “It's my savings. I wanna be rich, okay? So I can travel, eat well, buy cool stuff… So no one can say I can't do something!” And none of the following will really be insightful or revelatory because it’s just what she says here but. yeah! that’s vi! the main reason she’s so big on money is because she has to be to get what she wants out of life! it’s what lets her say no to people telling her what to do, and that’s important to her because she has no choice but to be independent and support herself. because no one else will. No one at the Hive had anything positive or supportive to say about her being an explorer until she went out and did it (to a ridiculously successful degree, too. I have to wonder if/how it might’ve differed if she was on a regular accomplishment level team. not the one leading them all to the mission to the Hive). she never had a choice not to be. I could also see that being a little part of why she starts out not really being a teamwork person. past experiences have taught her she can’t rely on anyone else for support. (does make me wonder about what if she’d met Chubee before leaving the Hive. obviously she still would’ve left, but how might even a bit of support have changed other things?)

I feel like we don’t talk about the fact that The Beemerang Is Also Knives enough

ok so at one point there was this post talking about people with money and how it affects their life like. if you can afford to get a nanny then you can only do the fun parts of childcare and when you stop feeling like taking care of the kid you can just hand them to someone else to take them away. and again likely not especially revelatory but I would guess that’s the kind of way queen bianca handled the bees as her daughters (she does care about them. absolutely. but not in the same hands-on attached way as we usually associate with parents) and thinking about how that kind of treatment would then apply to vi....hm

in universes where discussions of Gender and Pronouns etc happen I think she has moments where she gets frustrated with the everything of Being Referred To and Having Complicated Identity She Hasn’t Quite Figured Yet and is like. gender is cancelled how dare you refer to me. but especially anyone else calls me a girl ever i will be stabbing them

also I think a lot about what circumstances she finds out about gayness/Gender being things. and whether she’s thought about it in herself before and whether she’d been dismissed on it/told it wasn’t a thing etc. most circumstances she ends up angry about the finding out times because of (un)consicious internal conflict stuff

underground tavern stuff implies she was definitely doing quests and stuff for money with them precanon. would kill to know what specifically it was. but also the first talk with utter implies that she was doing stuff off that questboard as well which is even more intriguing. utter’s spy also implies you don’t have to be an explorer to do them but otherwise you would think you did I feel. so again very curious what was up there

[misterradio]

Jumper [2008, dir. Doug Liman]

[constantvariations]

I remember someone saying "there's no such thing as a good racism allegory" and it's been bouncing around in my head for a while. I'm someone who typically thinks anything can work if given the right circumstances, but then I really started thinking about it and I believe they're right

Because if you want to talk about racism, you should just talk about racism

(This is unpolished and ramble-y, so strap yourselves in)

Racism is deeply ingrained into our society, no matter where you live. Imperialism and colonialism has ensured that no corner of Earth has been left untouched. Choices from hundreds of years ago are still being felt today. There's practically no end to the discussion of its effects on the world and its people

So, why should anyone feel the need to dress it up in cat ears?

I've consumed a lot of media where writers have consciously echoed in part some aspect of racism in their fantasy story: Bright 2017, Dragon Age, RWBY, the MCU, Harry Potter, Detroit: Become Human, etc. The biggest thing they have in common is that the narrative is told to side with the victims, but it somehow always ends up against them

It always sides with the status quo

It's confusing, maddening even, because the narrative oft goes out of its way to show how horrible the system is and how these folk don't deserve their treatment, so why are we going back to normal as if it's a good thing? Why are the people actively working to improve the system decried as annoying at best and monstrous at worst?

Then you look at the people who write these storylines. The beliefs they hold, the people they vote for, which charities and organizations they give to, and it all makes sense. Centrists (at best) trying to look progressive are the ones who need to dress racism up in cat ears and rainbow freckles. They set aside the long, brutal histories and crushing systemic realities to play pretend that racism is Not That Bad and is only done by Those Bad Individuals

That's why Velvet's ears are tugged instead of culled. That's why the Mantle drunkards say mean things to Blake instead of attempting to assault her. That's why everything surrounding the SDC's labor practices is so vague as to be useless while the biggest evidence of their malice is hand-waved away by a writer who says the victim "had it coming" as if someone can deserve being branded by being too much of a brat

These stories aren't meant to make the audience question why our society works off the bloodied backs of the exploited or demands we take good, hard looks at ourselves and how we've been duped into believing so much garbage about entire swathes of people. They're meant to satisfy the people who only feel bad that these things are happening because they (white folk) look like the bad guys. It's a self-congratulatory wank about how "I'm not like THOSE guys, therefore I'm a good person!"

And then there's the characters meant to convey this story in the first place: always inoffensive, mostly aimless, "not like the other girl" types that pander to that delicate palate. Blake - a conventionally attractive, pale skinned girl in fashionable clothes - used to be passionate about equality but only in the right way, and demonizes anyone who does not conform to this mindset despite having no reasoning to back it up while never once demanding better of the privileged people around her even when they do racially insensitive things

The biggest downfall of these racial allegories, be they about cat girls or orcs or elves or robots, is that they do something that marginalized folk have been forced to endure since the dawn of time: literal dehumanization. There are tangible differences between humans and whatever the allegory is, which undermines the very fundamental fact that black/asian/queer/neurodivergent/disabled/whatever folk are unapologetically, undeniably, exceedingly human. By dressing up their plights in cat ears or spottled blue skin, you're creating theater not for the people who actually live through these struggles as a means of connecting with them and providing them a safe outlet for their feelings, but giving the people who benefit from passively allowing the system to enforce said struggles a pat on the head for not being the grand wizard

I don't really know where I'm going or how to end this, so I'll just sign off with if you're going to talk about racism, just talk about racism

[marinecorvid]

Guardian signs thoughts of the evening: I know bc of threat escalation GS had to be crazier and more high stakes than the other games before it, especially as THE last gen 4 game, but it’s still. absolutely buckwild. to me that one of the first bosses you fight (Raikou) is one of the FINAL bosses of the first game, and shit stays at that level of crazy til the very end. befriend the proclaimed most violent Pokémon in the world. twice. in a row. try to help your mom work through her post traumatic stress disorder and fight satan. the gods that control time and space and your very existence are mad as hell. try not to get judgemented

[nyssasorbit]

For some reason, I had a dream that Taffy was pregnant and needed specific medication that I, for some reason, was tasked with obtaining for him.

Apparently this also (for some reason) included Fumus being unable to touch Taffy while he's pregnant, and Taffy was absolutely living to tease Fumus about shit during it. I distinctly remember one part of the dream where Fumus said he'd do something for him in hour, and Taffy was like, "Oh...well, a good God could do it in an hour, but a better God could do it in half" (or something like that).

And I guess Fumus was so fucking offended and/or pissed that lo and behold, the task was done in 30.

[melodyofthevoid]

*weeps in wanting short hair but in a masculinely feminine way but also having 0 idea how to style short hair and being generally low effort with my hair.*

[punchdrunkdoc]

OK but the ending of Yargi season 1 is a big fake-out/misdirect, right?!

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THAT ITS NOT REAL!!! MY HEART CANT TAKE IT!!

[mayasdeluca]

so station 19 really gave jason another episode to direct (still waiting to see his pre-requisite credentials needed to direct in the first place like danielle & stefania need btw) in the beginning of the season before danielle gets her first episode which is all the way at the end...they really said we’re going to be sexist on and off screen and we don’t care who knows it!!

[elstreem]

If a raid boss exists, my Butler Bedi is here to very respectfully erase it out of existence.

With big thanks to my Osakabehime for removing that annoying evade chance buff and for having a handy 20 + for the NP gauge too, and Helena for being a handy support.

[menacingfag]

[guideaus]

yeah, that just about sums up his attitude

[sortanonymous]

So am I the only one who gets kind of annoyed whenever people act like emulation on PC is the be-all, end-all solution that nobody has any excuse to not try?

Like don't get me wrong, long live emulation! It's just people going, "Why would you buy that re-release? Just boot up your computer and play it in 5K on Dolphin!"

I don't know if you can tell, but I only got a computer better than a Chromebook just last year, a pretty good $700 (I think refurbished but still very new) Windows 11 laptop, and yet it runs stuff as simple as Citra and Dolphin like absolute dogcrap, especially if, higher powers forbid, I want any resolution better than 480p. Heck, it can barely even do decent N64 emulation. And that's without even mentioning all the controller complications.

Not to mention, maybe they just don't have the space for a good PC setup or just inherently don't sitting at a desk to play games for hours at a time. I have warmed up to playing on this laptop lately (in case you couldn't tell from me playing through those Sonic fan remasters), but even so, I'd be lying if I said I'd rather be playing them on PC compared to on the TV or even a handheld console. And my desk is in no shape or position for a beefy PC with the nearest outlet so far away from it, so there goes upgrading to that even if my family and I had so much money to burn. (Although again, still a good laptop that I don't really regret having.)

Again, emulation rules and I can still get some good homebrew use out of this computer, but I'm just annoyed when people act like you'd be stupid to not go all in on PC emulation when, newsflash, it isn't exactly plug-and-play (though of course not to excuse when the kinds of re-releases I mentioned are lazy and/or overpriced - looking at you, Nintendo).

Then again, I also have a homebrewed 3DS and Wii U, making basically every pre-Switch Nintendo system besides the N64 (which even then I have Expanded Switch Online for at least the next eight months simply for not knowing when to turn off auto-pay in time, although I barely use it and the release pace is horrifically bad and greedy) fair game alongside tons of older stuff, so I could definitely be having it worse.

[misterradio]

my octeelia and thing shrines grow ::-]