It feels like we have this conversation every single time someone is murdered by the police, where there are well-intentioned but still very self-centered leftists insisting that photos and videos of the victim's murder and body be spread to "raise awareness" while the victim's actual loved ones and community desperately plead with the world to stop spreading that shit. It's exhausting and I don't understand why it keeps happening, why we need to go over this every single damn time, why we as a society are incapable of not turning someone's last horrific and painful moments into something to gawk at.
ed zitron, a tech beat reporter, wrote an article about a recent paper that came out from goldman-sachs calling AI, in nicer terms, a grift. it is a really interesting article; hearing criticism from people who are not ignorant of the tech and have no reason to mince words is refreshing. it also brings up points and asks the right questions:
if AI is going to be a trillion dollar investment, what trillion dollar problem is it solving?
what does it mean when people say that AI will "get better"? what does that look like and how would it even be achieved? the article makes a point to debunk talking points about how all tech is misunderstood at first by pointing out that the tech it gets compared to the most, the internet and smartphones, were both created over the course of decades with roadmaps and clear goals. AI does not have this.
the american power grid straight up cannot handle the load required to run AI because it has not been meaningfully developed in decades. how are they going to overcome this hurdle (they aren't)?
people who are losing their jobs to this tech aren't being "replaced". they're just getting a taste of how little their managers care about their craft and how little they think of their consumer base. ai is not capable of replacing humans and there's no indication they ever will because...
all of these models use the same training data so now they're all giving the same wrong answers in the same voice. without massive and i mean EXPONENTIALLY MASSIVE troves of data to work with, they are pretty much as a standstill for any innovation they're imagining in their heads
Speaking as a USAmerican, I've met these dudebros who gatekeep so hard because they've attached their entire identity to media that they hoped was “niche,” only to then realize that it wasn't, and that people outside of their narrow demographic have liked anime for a hell of a long time.
And in the meantime, they spew complete garbage takes on anime because they regard it less as an art in its own right, and more like an identifier that can set them apart from the mainstream.
It doesn't hurt that they're also bitter as hell that Megan is an unabashed weeb while also being talented as hell.
fake geek girl accusations have always been stupid and misogynistic and racist but the absurdity is really Highlighted when it's megan. megan thee stallion. lying about liking anime for men's approval. to impress whom, jeffrey? tyler, is megan thee stallion so worried about attracting you that she's faking her interests in her own songs? her own chart-topping songs? hunter, are you feeling ok? preston? zachary, do you need a cold wash cloth? how many fingers am i holding up austin
Because I like to multi-task, I've finished Scavenger's Reign while drawing my cringe hotd fan art. Beautiful. Delicious. Finally some good fucking creature design.
Also something about the animated body horror is sooo..
How we feeling, Bi Rhaenyra Nation??????
white queers are always so damned certain that "true" queerness is for them & them alone. expressions of queerness from Black people (most notably, Black women & those percieved as women) that don't center whiteness & aren't tailored for white audiences are always, always pegged as being unbelievable. all this plus a heaping dose of thay classic "all bi women are dirty attention seeking liars" brand of biphobia. fuck off man
[...] the mother, says about her son, "You got his sweet ways" when she sees the same kindness in her son that his father had.
— "Beloved" by Toni Morrison
The cycle is inescapable
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2.02 — Rhaenyra The Cruel 2.05 — Regent
“the met gala is the primary symbol of all that is wrong in society” is a pretty conservative take
Nah cuz I been clockin the hatred of men as anti-Black anti-Indigenous and transphobic from day one. I’m HORRIFIED by the beliefs/attitudes and mistreatment of (trans, queer, third and cultural gender) men of color that I witness from radfems and TERFs, AND everyday (predominantly yt) queer ppl. Queer men of color and third gender men have been subjected to this abusive treatment for so long that we have become ashamed to be queer ashamed to be proud as men who are attracted to men. I shouldn’t have to hide the fact that I’m attracted to men. I shouldn’t have to feel shame for the fact that I’m attracted to men, have relationships with men, and love being with and identifying as a man. being a man of color is beautiful. Being a man does not make you evil, an abuser, or a bad person. Being a man does not have to be restricted to colonial gender binaries and constructs. We can build our own cultural, traditional masculinities and manhoods that are liberating, not oppressive. claiming that manhood and masculinity are inherently violent is race and gender essentialism.
(X)
i’m going to let this video speak for itself. bc i don’t even know what to say anymore. i don’t know how we come back from this level of radicalization among young people to the point where holocaust denial has become the norm.
The sexual tension between pro shippers and anti shippers is something to be studied.
Oh yay, new bad star wars media followed by racist dudebro backlash towards said media. I am so fucking okay right now.
You know, y'all can make your own interpretations of greek gods without tagging them as Lore Olympus Redesigns. Better yet, you can write your own goddamn adaptation and not see it as a failure of Smythe to not have captured your meow meows the way you see them.
Also don't think I haven't noticed how a lot of you like to slim down the characters or give them thin anime faces in your "redesigns." Pathetic.
Otto Hightower: Your Catholic guilt situationship is not my problem.
house of the dragon — 1x04 | 2x02
Everytime I see something from tiktok, I get hit in the face with the ✨internalized misogyny takes✨ I had at 12.
Ok, real quick, speaking as a librarian, you absolutely cannot despair about the adult literacy crisis and shame adults for reading fiction books you do not personally care for or think are "challenging" at the same time. It doesn't work with kids, and it doesn't work with adults.
Here's how to increase someone's reading level:
1) Let them read whatever they choose without shame or judgment. Maybe get them talking about it using open-ended, non-leading questions to encourage critical thinking and comprehension.
2) Let them get bored after a while and seek out different books.
3) Repeat.
Loving the new counterpoint that not only is posting activism, not posting is complicity. Why doesn't everyone with any fame or internet presence immediately release a lengthy but perfectly-worded statement telling us where they stand on every issue? Is it because they're evil??? It must be because they're evil
And then the usual answer is "they don't post online very much". Which is all very suspicious, don't they know everything of importance is done by posts on social media now
Gosh, someone probably already said this so much better than me, but I absolutely love what Fallout did with the character of Barb Howard. She's this sort of subversion of both the doting 1950s housewife and the archetype of the wife who dies as character motivation, and you think that's the direction the series is going, but then you get to see bits and pieces of her outside of her marriage to Cooper.
Like these archetypes, she loves her family fiercely, but that love pushes her into an active role, not a passive one, and is one that encourages her to distrust humanity. Throughout the series, there's this ambiguity as to how much she's being manipulated by Vault-Tech and how much she's an active power player, especially when she suggests dropping the bomb in the first place. Maybe a combination of both?
I don't know, I generally dislike comparisons between Fallout and The Last of Us, because they go in very different directions outside of the general concept of a Western set in the apocalypse. However, Joel Miller and Barb Howard both embody this idea of love pushing us to be selfish, not selfless. It's a neat reversal of the theme of love as a source of redemption, and more as a love that alienates us from the rest of humanity.
ALSO, the choice of costumes and color for Barb's wardrobe! She wears these soft pinks that eventually transition into oranges, both shades that feel conventionally feminine, yet vibrant and powerful. The contrast between her dress and the meeting room in episode 8! Thank you, Frances Turner for bringing this character to life! Thank you, Amy Westcott for the costumes!
I'm crawling up the walls for a scene of the separation and divorce in S2. I want Barb Howard to be waiting for her moment in one of those cryogenic chamber thingies. Still in a very cool 1950s dress.
What if they just danced 👉👈
Okay, this might be an unpopular opinion, but if you want to combat the spread of misinformation then you have to let go of any belief that people not talking about an issue means that they don’t care. The only way to reduce the spread of misinformation and disinformation is to research claims before you spread them, and there is so much information constantly being thrown at people through social media and the 24 hour news cycle that it’s impossible to fact check every claim. The same can be said about AI generated images, if you look closely then you can notice certain tells that something is AI generated but no one really has the time to analyze every single image that crosses their path.
If we expect people to talk about and spread information on every social/political/economic issue that occurs then the result will be that people will spread misinformation/disinformation because they will not have the time or mental capacity to research every single thing that happens on Earth just to make sure that they aren’t being fed incorrect information.
Only researching claims that set off a red flag or seem incorrect doesn’t actually do much to prevent misinformation, because there are plenty of claims that will seem correct on the surface or that will align with your view of the world that you won’t think to research. You have to research every claim if you want to avoid misinformation, and you can’t research every claim made by someone online.
The only solution is to accept that some people aren’t going to talk about certain issues, not because they don’t care, but because they have chosen to focus on other issues for the time being and don’t want to talk about an issue that they don’t know much about. And we really need to stop treating that like a bad thing. If you spread yourself too thin then you’re not going to accomplish anything. It’s actually good to have people devoting themselves to learning about and fighting a specific issue, that’s how progress is made.
im still kind of in disbelief that that the internet like...turned on lore olympus. i get the whole "once something is popular people make it their personality to hate something", and the "incredibly online people make age gap discourse about immortal gods bc they need to touch grass," and you're certainly not obligated to like it, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but like. it is a genuinely good comic. its issues are no worse than like, most serialized web comics that have to struggle with the medium, and its art style is engaging and interesting, and has improved a lot over time. i know there was a very t*rf-led movement on here a LONG time ago starting discourse about greek myths to get crypto t*rf shit about femininity across and i know thats where some critiques come from. and it's weird that many criticisms of "modern retellings" get blamed on lore olympus bc it doesnt actually follow them - like, demeter isnt some crazy bitch, she's a character with complexity and depth.
yes the original intent of the story is changed, a story that women in ancient times could relate to about the fears of marriage, but LO actually does what modern retellings of old stories do best - modify a story to serve a similar purpose, but reflecting the modern audience's contemporary issues. in this case, embracing the complexities of love and marriage as a survivor of sexual assault, something many modern women struggle with. persephone's relationship with demeter ALSO reflects a very real struggle many modern young women have, of finding identity and sexual agency as an adult when your entire life has been controlled by a helicopter mother, even with the best intentions, and with her own trauma.
i also find the criticisms of the body types and sexuality often misogynistic and weird - people want things with a distinct, interesting style, they want women with sexual agency to be promoted and not sanitized, and yet LO gets over-criticized. how persephone dresses, how the other gods dress, changes a lot depending on level of confidence, mood, etc, and is a part of the storytelling in an interesting way. you don't have to like it, and i know there's jokes about the LO art style of drawing women, but i have a body like some of those bodies. i know other people who do, or at least similarly. it's not like a lot of comics or manga or anime where everyone is a stick, and they get to be sexy! it's nice!
and when people complain that its the only webcomic people read well then thats a YOU problem. i read a LOT of webcomics. i talk about them to people, i recommend them. romantic and otherwise. do you? do you spend as much time complaining about lore olympus as you do talking up other cool webcomics that deserve attention?
not to be a nerd but it’s so crazy how he (Bernini) really did that from cold hard stone……. truly a spectacle, truly breathtaking, an honor to behold
'White Americans don't have any culture, they're just [normal/boring/generic/empty]. 'Culture' is when you're quaint and exotic and have interesting ethnic foods and holidays." is such a grating bit of nonsense to have somehow become progressive commonsense in a lot of places.
#hope you are doing well #sincerely, fellow glasses wearer
FUCK i underestimated how much an eye exam + new glasses cost
I Am Not Your Asian American Doll: a comic for AAPI Heritage Month 2023
I usually spend a lot of time editing and fine-tuning my comics so that they come across as polite and inoffensive. But honestly, I’m really tired of the way Asian cultures and countries are treated / talked about while Asian people themselves are excluded, and thought it was about time I really let my rage out lol.
id in alt
so yeah that fire in Lahaina, Maui? That was what indigenous activists were trying to prevent. That is why Land Back movements wants indigenous people to be the stewards of the land that was once theirs. Not kick out white people and settlers. But to prevent shit like that where a bunch of tourists/settlers won't destroy the planet in their ruthless pursuit of productivity and profit. So yeah, think on that.
i wish everyone who made kit connor feel he had to come out a very merry FUCK YOU. you forced an eighteen year old into coming out publicly, before he was ready, when he stated many many times he wanted to keep it private. how many more times does this shit have to fucking happen before some of you fucking clock that YOU CANNOT QUEERBAIT IN REAL LIFE. this is the natural end to the discourse of ‘if somebody is in the public eye playing a queer person they owe us their sexuality’, and it’s DEEPLY FUCKED UP, they do NOT owe you an answer, and this mindset JUST FORCED AN EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD TO OUT HIMSELF BEFORE HE WAS READY TO