Jonathan Strangest

Heaving a dry one with the boys

[hotcakeninja]

Game Stranger S1E2 in the works, not because I want to or have the time, but because I'm compelled.

TW: Heavy anti-christianity

[hotcakeninja]

Logo I came across while driving. A couple things to unpack here:

First is that it's a roofing company and they've plastered a QR code over the roof part of the logo.

Second, it's got some hallmarks, but I wasn't 100% certain it's AI generated, however, the fact that the website has funky cramped kerning AND is a website that doesn't exist clinches it for me.

[hotcakeninja]

I've seen a lot of unhinged Christianity in my time, but I drove past this painfully Christian veterinarian the other day. I don't think I've ever seen a pro-christian message that was more demonstrably untrue.

[hotcakeninja]

I've only gotten two comments on my fanfic but I want to frame them, they make me feel so good.

[hotcakeninja]

Remember that episode of Recess from 1998 where the playground begins using nominal mediums of exchange in the form of MonStickers, and then T.J. independently invents capitalism by exploiting others' labour and ends up owning 80% of the entire economy and nobody can afford to do anything, including lay in the grass or drink water, so they all just stand around, and in his pursuit to control the remaining 20%, declares loitering a crime with an attached fine?

The solution was to devalue the currency that was inaccessible to the 99% and begin using something inaccessible to the kid on the playground who ruined everything for everyone. Overnight, his valuation of one-trillion stickers was suddenly worthless because everyone else collectively decided to play a different game.

I'm no economist, but wouldn't that be cool if we could do that?

[hotcakeninja]

Huh, that's interesting.

And by interesting I mean it's a pretty funny coincidence.

[depsidase]

[seymour-butz-stuff]

Remove immunity and require each officer to carry insurance. The more fucked up the department the higher their insurance and individually it swings further based on claims.

Hit their pocketbooks the way they hit their wives and kids.

[hotcakeninja]

I like the sentiment, but the laws, politicians, and cops are all on the same side. It's like saying that the key to solving the problematic behaviour of a cat is to tell the cat to spray itself in the face with water anytime it scratches up the furniture, and then trust that it will.

[elliespectacular]

HOW TO DRAW ELLIE SPECTACULAR

and Nell

Larger images for easier reading under the cut

[hotcakeninja]

Nothing beckons me like a "how to draw."

[hotcakeninja]

Normalizing the Shitty Economy

I have every criticism for advertisement, but sometimes one just beams as especially egregious.

Just saw this "micro apartment" ad for Verizon. The premise is the showing of an apartment about 72 ft­² and how absurd it would be. It's a light-hearted nod to the enshittification of the economy, because to corporations it's just a fucking joke. An exaggeration? For now. I could genuinely see this in the near future, only because we've repeatedly seen the exaggeration become the 'new normal.' Our country is run by people who have decisively raped and killed children and continually suffer zero consequences, so nothing is too abhorrent to be outside the realm of possibility anymore.

What this ad says to me: "We acknowledge that the economy sucks, specifically in the cost/value of housing, and instead of condoning it, we want you to actually be grateful that it isn't THIS bad. How silly would it be to have to shit in your kitchen/living room/bedroom? Thank god we provide fucking cell service or whatever."

I'm so sick of it all; I'm sick of hearing myself be sick of it all; I'm sick of being sick of it all.

I want to operate outside of the US dollar so these monsters and their complicit cult can't have power or influence over my life anymore.

[animentality]

[hotcakeninja]

No such thing as an AI artist. Would they have us believe that describing something and then saying "no, not like that," hundreds of times is some kind of skill?

[boomer-mythology-destroyer]

[111111111yeah]

is that eddy from ed edd and eddy

[hotcakeninja]

Half of the Arc Raiders gameplay videos are just some guy saying "I'm friendly," not being friendly, and then laughing hysterically like they just discovered lying.

[hotcakeninja]

"Swollen Amygdala"

Yes I'm commenting 'swollen amygdala behaviour' on every post that features someone who genuinely believes that harming another working class person will make themselves safer. You're worried about the pennies that come out of your pay to feed other wage slaves, who even work full time, because John Furner needs to pay himself $30M a year, but you don't mind when Elon Musk spends $44B on control over the platform he's mad about not being popular enough on, then begs for government subsidies that also come from your taxes and cost more than welfare?

You're mad about people who 'don't want to work?' Like the single mothers who 'take it easy' around the clock raising children instead of outsourcing it to strangers? That's a waste of tax dollars, but the billionaire who deliberately introduces hurdles to justify a subscription based service that only makes the problem they invented suck a tiny bit less? Handouts for days. "Not everyone on welfare is unable to work!" Okay! That's fine! At least they're not making our lives harder on purpose! God! What I wouldn't give to have the Jeff Bezoses of the world just fucking veg out on the couch and leave us alone, especially for a fraction of the price we pay to them sell back to us the things they took.

You want to facilitate and excuse the deranged behaviour of the people who literally prey on children because they've failed to connect with humans that have developed autonomy, all because they successfully distracted you with the fact that your neighbour's skin pigment is different from yours?

Your amygdala is dangerously inflamed, and unless you make an active effort to reverse it, your soft, malleable terror will destroy you and everyone around you. The people who purposely rammed the iceberg tell you to get all your loved ones into a life boat, but they're putting you in a bathtub and locking the door so they can go stop the people trying to fix the ship.

[hotcakeninja]

I've said it before, but this whole 'wait until you're my age' shit just keeps getting to me. In my 20s I'd mention to a coworker that I pulled a muscle in my back and I'd immediately get hit with invalidation, like I was too young to experience discomfort. No, you're right, there's no way I could ever experience even a fraction of the depth of your suffering. I'll remember that next time I think of saying something offhandedly.

Now that I'm 40, I see 30 year olds competitively shitting on 20 year olds for not being as old as them, whether it's the degradation of their bodies or which fucking console they played first, like it's some fucking badge of honour and the 20 year olds should be ashamed they grew up on PS2 instead of PSX. It's got the same energy as a seven year old punching a five year old for being shorter than them, and then beaming about it.

It's hard not to grab them and scream into their faces "Do you not REALIZE that the same reasoning you use to justify your DISDAIN for your fellow man could so readily BE USED AGAINST YOU?! NOBODY IS HANDING OUT AWARDS FOR THIS! EVERYONE'S LIVED EXPERIENCES ARE VALID! LET PEOPLE LIVE THEIR LIVES"

[depsidase]

[hotcakeninja]

The only people who are less human are the ones who willingly relinquished their humanity when they traded compassion and empathy for cruelty and control. They saw a growing distance between themselves and humanity as an indicator that they were ascending; in actuality digging themselves deeper. When the realization came that casting off humanity made them into monsters, they took the skin from their human victims, stretched it over themselves and declared a 'new' standard for what it means to be human, any deviations thereof decidedly "less than."

[hotcakeninja]

Due to political unrest and uncertainty, I'm no longer non-binary. I'm 'going back in,' as binary. Please refer to me as one of the genders.

[hotcakeninja]

It's so bizarre to boast about your age as if it's inherently virtuous to have started existing sooner. "You were born after 2000?! I bet you've never even seen an Atari 2600, because...because they were no longer popular by the time you were a literal baby. But...but I have!—seen one that is. I've seen one so much that, I even used to play on one every day. T-t-think about how that makes you inferior...for some reason?"

What the hell even?

No, now that I think about it, they were probably made fun of for not knowing what a hoop and stick were. They're just perpetuating the god-awful cycle they've found themselves in of shitting on people for literally any fucking reason. If there's any possible way you can claw your way an inch above another person, you just gotta. It's the law.