Trashing The Great English Language Since-

Oh wait too late

[headspace-hotel]

My opinion on virtually all internet discourse is that social media is catastrophically bad for having conversations about anything that matters.

People speak of online "spaces" but online does not have physical space in it and that is the problem.

It's like if all the conversations people ever had in public had to take place in a huge warehouse-sized room where everyone could hear and see everyone else at the exact same volume and with the exact same clarity no matter where they were standing.

Some people are seriously discussing political action. Some people are goofing off. Someone is panhandling, someone is venting to their friends about something awful that happened to them, someone is giving a speech about a topic that interests them, someone is crying about the pain in their life, someone is just thinking out loud to themselves, a bunch of people just want to watch movies or hang out with their friends. Someone is trying to sell some junk. A bunch of people are passing around newspapers.

And all of these people can hear and see each other perfectly so that they don't even know if they themselves or anyone else is in an intimate conversation with people who sympathize, if they're having a town hall meeting, if they're attending a lecture, if they are behind the podium giving a lecture, if they're hanging out at the bar with friends, if they're in their friend's car, or if they're just in a public park watching the clouds.

If someone who thinks they're in the movie group makes a comment about the movie, the people who think they're in the audience at the lecture hall will think the movie watcher is the lecturer behind the podium. So, they will turn to their friends and say "wow, get a load of that guy, they just said..." but the people who think they are at a town hall meeting will think "wow, this is clearly an important concern," but the person who thinks they are crying to their friends is like "Seriously? We're talking about a MOVIE when my life is falling apart?"

The truth is we are not at the bar or in a lecture hall or in a public park or in a town hall meeting. We are in the Warehouse Where Everyone Can See And Hear Everyone Else. And that's why everyone is so stressed out and pissed off all the time.

[sanguinifex]

You gotta read and watch some old books and films that aren’t 100% modern politically correct. I’m not saying you should agree with everything in them but you need to learn where genres came from to understand what those genres are doing today and where media deconstructing old tropes is coming from.

Also, more often than you might think, they’re not actually promoting bigotry so much as “didn’t consider all the implications of something” or just used words that were polite then but considered offensive now.

Kill the censor in your head.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

When we choose to avoid history because it's Problematic or Says Bad Things, we are choosing to divorce ourselves from understanding how we came from that time to this one, which makes it even more likely for the cycle to repeat, with no one but a few people with shelves of old books aware that it's happened before.

[swimmingblue]

and this shit's important. Media from the past tells us how people from the past acted and thought and behaved.

Plus, a lot of these media pieces were socially acceptable and/or progressive for their time. For example, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, while it contains a lot of words and ideas that are offensive now, was very progressive for its time. The book is a statement piece for how a young man who's grown up in a racist environment, with no words to explain himself other than racist and bigoted ones, decides that the whole system is shit and he's not going to follow those rules any more. So not reading or engaging with it because it uses the n-word a lot really misses the point.

[ariesrin]

I love characters who would die for each other but will not, under any circumstances, communicate a single honest feeling.

[startrekvsfaceapp]

[elfwreck]

[findingfeather]

I spend so much time thinking about how we all Darmok-talk here on the internet. So much. 

[zoanzon]

[syn4k]

"lock in" is probably one of the most important phrases to enter the public lexicon in the 2020s

[joyflameball]

[spitblaze]

I'm gonna get phthaloplasty. Oh yeah my shit's all gonna be a serene sea green, or perhaps a tidal blue

[berlynn-wohl]

Me in 2006: I’m still bitter about that

Me in 2016: I’m still salty about that

Me in 2026, probably: I’m still umami about that

[allaark]

Well, are you?. We’re waiting.

[berlynn-wohl]

There’s a lot to be umami about these days.

[triviallytrue]

people who don't follow chess I promise this post is really funny

[dorkichiban]

Karpov had cemented his position as the world's best player and world champion by the time Garry Kasparov arrived on the scene. In their first match, the World Chess Championship 1984 in Moscow, the first player to win six games would win the match. Karpov built a 4–0 lead after nine games. The next 17 games were drawn, setting a record for world title matches, and it took Karpov until game 27 to gain his fifth win. In game 31, Karpov had a winning position but failed to take advantage and settled for a draw. He lost the next game, after which 14 more draws ensued. Karpov held a solidly winning position in Game 41, but again blundered and had to settle for a draw. After Kasparov won games 47 and 48, FIDE President Florencio Campomanes unilaterally terminated the match, citing the players' health. Karpov is said to have lost 10 kg over the course of the match. The match had lasted an unprecedented five months, with five wins for Karpov, three for Kasparov, and 40 draws.

okay, yeah this is pretty funny

[zim-kinnie]

Whenever Americans use Cryillic like. That. I just. Instantly shrivel up an cry

[zim-kinnie]

Like idk how to tell you this but н isnt h and и isnt n

[skyheartstar13]

It’s true and you should say it.

[zim-kinnie]

Я isnt R

Р isnt P

В isnt B

[shipping-is-life-1-0-1]

If you want to explain, what does it mean then? 0.0

[zim-kinnie]

н makes n sound,и makes ee sound, я makes ya sound, р makes r sound, в makes v sound

[shimmedmilk]

you mean, like, ня?

[aveture]

oh no. It can be made with Cyrillic now

[zim-kinnie]

ня

[verminviscount]

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE EXPLAINED

[zim-kinnie]

НЯ

[degenerate-perturbation]

НЯ

[give-fnc-chocolate]

[zicygomar]

[exvind]

OH. GOD.

[lizord-lord]

THATS SO FUNNY

[clusterbuck]

started a new book and immediately realised i was expecting something very different to what i was getting so. question

if a book is labelled literary fiction, do you expect the prose to be good?*

yes

no

secret third thing

Voting ended onJun 26

*define ‘good’ however you want, i guess. i can’t really define it either, but in my mind litfic prose should be good, and also there’s something about it generally that reads differently to genre fiction**

**this is not a value judgement and i’m not saying genre fiction prose can’t be good. please do not piss on the poor

[materassassino]

Well yes, otherwise what's the point? It's not like there's worldbuilding or plot to fall back on.

[headspace-hotel]

depends on if it's "expect" as in "it SHOULD be" or "expect" as in "it WILL be" cause those are very different

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

This phrase has already entered my vocabulary re: media criticism where like. The viewer has a concrete view of what they expect a story to be based on the tropes and cliches they're used to seeing together, and when that doesn't happen, they judge it as a failed depiction of what they assumed it was going to be instead of judging it as what it actually is.

"This show is problematic because the hero didn't kill the villain at the end": When does he steal the bread?

"These two characters who were close friends throughout the series don't kiss at the end! What the fuck?": When does he steal the bread?

"This feels like it's missing a conclusion! Like, the protagonist does bad stuff and because of a critical decision he makes as a result of his major character flaws, meets tragedy in the end! Where's the part where he learns better and brings is love back from the dead and becomes a good guy and gets a happy ending?": When does he steal the fucking bread??

[thetetra]

I heard this out as "When criticizing something, you must judge it for what it is, not what it isn't"

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#this is why so many of us urge people to get a wider diet of stories

[clonerightsagenda]

Literary criticism terms I use on this blog despite making them up myself, much to the chagrin of anyone who does not have my back catalog memorized:

are we the baddies: SFF subgenre focused on agents of an imperial power realizing that and grappling with what to do next, in contrast to stories focusing on the scrappy rebels resisting said imperial power

I could fix him (the empire): SFF subgenre where the colonized subject being nice and/or sexy enough Ends Colonialism, frequently tied to the John President of Racism problem

librarian bait: books centered on the transformative life-changing power of books and libraries, cousin to books focused on the transformative life-changing power of storytelling and narrative in general

college brochure fiction: stories where the protagonist has an artfully arranged group of diverse friends who are as flat as paper and whose cultural backgrounds never come up meaningfully

the Dave Strider: character the fandom fixates on to the detriment of everything else, until the weight of that attention warps fanon and sometimes even canon around them. almost always male. it's happening to Gurathin from Murderbot right now

[clonerightsagenda]

#OP tell us more about the John President of Racism problem!

It hails from an immortal tumblr post by penultimate-step, except not immortal apparently because I get 'not found' when I try to go back to the original. (Edit: Link found) So here's the text:

It's always disappointing when a series makes a big deal about societal and structural problems in it's setting, making readers think it has interesting things to say about the subject, only to then resolve the problems by fighting The CEO of Racism, John Racist, so that all of society's problems would then get better because they promoted a new CEO.

[phantomrose96]

I wonder if “we have to torture this special character. in the lab facility. with secret science.” is an interest all 12-year-old children share or were we just the generation exposed to Maximum Ride

[phantomrose96]

You’re right. How could I forget to credit anime for its role in putting the special character in the secret torture facility (for science).

[sympathischeufos]

Genuine question: Isn't this just Bond villainy and/or medieval torture dungeon? Or what kind of facility are we talking about?

[phantomrose96]

The Facility is a critically important part here. See it’s a Science Facility. It’s run by a very shady clandestine organization, which is incredibly powerful. They’re maybe part of the government, or if not the government then something Illuminati-like.

As such The Facility is very high tech, and likely buried underground or hidden somewhere no normal person can access. The Torture being done is for Science, which the Facility is for. It’s all scientists in lab coats doing the torture. There is so much lab equipment and probably a lot of devices hooked up to the special character which will beep and go off the charts when the special character has a violent mind explosion. This part is important.

[phantomrose96]

A lot of really good mentions in the notes here

Mewtwo

Secrets of Nimh

Wolverine

Akira

Elfen Lied

Shadow the Hedgehog

And a special mention to the couple of people identifying that a 12-year-old stuck in school all day is, perhaps, in a way, a special character being tortured in the science facility.

[serps-up]

he must have some sort of condition

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

[feldfrog]

Hey man, it’s just a joke. Which, as we all know, is a form of speech in a vacuum, devoid of meaning

[lilliankillthisman]

"The word pandemonium was coined by John Milton as the name for the Parliament of Hell" is an all-timer etymology. Oh yeah did you hear that Mrs Higgins's dogs got loose at the village fête? It was like a vast golden edifice in which fallen angels debate their strategies for vengeance against god, yeah.

[danielkahndyke]

the op linked the study in the replies & i’ve been skimming it & it’s actually rlly rlly interesting to think abt

https://e1.nmcdn.io/assets/pushkin/wp-content/uploads/imported-files/Wait-theres-torture-in-Zootopia_-Examining-the-prevalence-of-torture-in-popular-movies.pdf

[danielkahndyke]

like this sentence from the introduction alone is fucking crazy. “approximately half of adults in the united states think that torture can be acceptable in counterterrorism.” what!

[trans-girl-nausicaa]

we need a cultural revolution in america.

[headspace-hotel]

not to make this important post about my brain worms but this paper actually discusses captain america: the winter soldier at some length

in the appendix (which you can find by scrolling down) CA:TWS is listed as having one torture scene, which immediately made me wonder because there are two that I can think of.

further on in the appendix when the authors are discussing the criteria for including torture, they give the vault scene in CA:TWS as an example of a scene that isn't torture, with the justification that Bucky seems to comply with his captors, and given the information shown on screen we can't conclude whether or not Bucky is a willing participant in the "wipe." Willing participants cannot be tortured, therefore the vault scene is not counted as torture

That is a WILD take on that scene. "doesn't fight back" does not equal "not being tortured" come on now

now, I could see disqualifying the vault scene as being a torture scene on the basis that the purpose of the "wipe" is not to inflict pain, it just happens to be an extremely painful process.

That's an interesting take. Is doing something incredibly painful or distressing to a person torture when there is ostensibly a secondary purpose to the painful thing, even though it also clearly doubles as a way of inflicting suffering and asserting power? This is a really important question to answer, since a lot of instances of torture and mistreatment in prisons and military situations etc. seem to fall under this. e.g. a strip search is nominally for "security" purposes, but it is also forced nudity which is a common form of sexual violence inflicted as part of torture.

But disqualifying the scene because there is not enough evidence that Bucky is being coerced to do it is nuts, since immediately prior Bucky gets slapped in the face for not answering a question and doesn't retaliate, and immediately before that Bucky gets a bunch of guns pointed at him when he acts up

That's another important question. Does being forced to comply with or participate in your own torture disqualify it from being torture?

The answer is, to me, obviously no, and in fact this seems like a relatively common feature of torture: e.g. forcing prisoners to dig their own graves requires a good amount of compliance from the victim and that's a major reason why it's so distressing

anyways the vault scene was what got me thinking about torture in media and got me to rewatching jacob geller's fantastic video essay "analyzing every torture scene in call of duty" which actually cites this paper.

[headspace-hotel]

@dellerose peer reviewed tags

[dellerose]

[Image ID: tag that reads "#damn even the paper researching torture in media excuses torture in media we are so screwed"]

[headspace-hotel]

okay, for one thing, he doesn't "lean back," he is pushed by the scientists. also! the chair restrains him. but even apart from that, how do you watch that scene and get "active and willing participant." Pierce literally hits him when he doesn't answer a question quickly enough.

[headspace-hotel]

@deus3xmachinablog I think it would have to be the scene where the heroes throw Sitwell off a roof yeah. I kinda want to see the breakdown for ALL the movies listed.