Problem Machine

I wasn't trying to call anyone out, I was just trying to outline the reasons why it struck me as loaded and awkward. Jesus. Can we let this die?

Why does someone saying it seems it's a bit awkward and tone deaf have to be a big issue though? There has to be room to say "hm that struck me a bit weird" without it feeling like an attack.

Man I just thought it was a little awkward I wasn't calling anyone a hitler or anything.

I don't think anyone really thought through the implications of naming Crono 'Iwata': It ended up being kind of awkward, but there was sort of a weird ritual catharsis to it which I thought was really interesting (which is why I wrote about it). I hadn't heard about the noise about not naming a character Iwata, that's kinda fucked.

Yeah a certain amount of talking it up is fine since it gets people pumped to donate, but some of the 'GDQ is great gamers are great games are great don't let anyone say different it's all great' definitely crosses a line sometimes into kind of jingoism. I think the peak example of this was during the last AGDQ, while the GamerGate shitshow was still fresh on everyone's minds, TotalBiscuit donated with a message saying something like "don't let anyone say gamers aren't inclusive".

moddy pretty much covered it, but yeah basically that both these women have been targeted extensively for harassment and an extremely common way to disregard/dismiss the actual content of women's speech and ideas is to criticize their appearance. She's been on the podcast. It's hardly out of the question that she'd read this topic on the forum. And even if that never happens, it's still in poor taste under the circumstances: I'm sure most of the other people here have also heard it, and I don't think the people who haven't have missed much. edit: Whether it was positive criticism or negative criticism isn't really salient. Women who are experts in their field don't want to hear about how good they looked giving a presentation any more than they want to hear about how bad they looked (unless it's from a friend). Taking the opportunity of a picture of Anita Sarkeesian to comment on her appearance is, at best, kind of tone deaf. Actually, that's about what it is at worst too: It's not like this is some kind of massive misogynist atrocity, it's just unnecessary and kind of rude.

Yeah, could be I'm reading too much into it, it just seems like an awful volatile thing to joke about under the circumstances.

Even as a joke taking the time specifically to critique a woman critic's appearance seems, to me, to cut a bit close to the bone... Sorry to be a killjoy, I just have a hard time imagining any fashion choice a male critic makes inspiring that kind of joke, even if his ears were guaged or something.

I wrote a few words about Chrono Trigger, SGDQ, and trying to fix things.

I mean this just seems like the traditional focus group problem where something that has to go through a lot of filters ends up kind of bland. It hardly seems like a grand threat to freedom of speech that comics booked for free events on college campuses aren't booked to tell their rape jokes: Clowns booked for birthday parties usually don't either.

This article unironically uses the terms opinionated in a way that is different from me and Social Justice Warrior. It makes it kind of hard to take seriously. IS this an actual problem?

I think the concern re: Cuphead wasn't so much that it promotes racism so much that it carelessly invokes imagery with a racist history, disregarding the context behind it. But, uh, that's neither here nor there. So one big difference between 'kill all men' and the other phrases people are comparing it to is that it's an incitement to action, even if an ironic one. Saying "I hate men" is merely a statement of opinion: Even if that opinion hurts some feelings, it doesn't really threaten anyone in the way that saying "kill all men" does. In fact, it's hard to think of any analogous phrase that would fly here: "Torture all men"? "Castrate all men"? "Enslave all men"? None of these jokes are really funny, and all of them tend to tread real close to invoking actual historical atrocity.

I think also part of what jennegatron was talking about earlier isn't even a gender issue too. Like, it's a very common thing now to end up following someone's work online, hearing their opinions in their voice, learning their body language, seeing them chum around with friends, and feel a sense of familiarity like with a friend when they're still essentially a stranger in terms of actual social interaction. So even aside from feminism stuff, it's important to remember that when you're talking to someone on twitter or whatever who doesn't really know you to try to be respectful of boundaries in the same way you would on meeting a complete stranger for the first time, no matter how well you feel you know them.

It's more like telling a joke and it bombing and then the next comedian tells the same joke with a wacky face and fart noises and it brings the house down. THEN comes the grimacing face of disapproval! My habit is to either try to build on a joke or to acknowledge it. Just repeating it feels thoughtless to me. But, as Jennegatron points out, those tendencies are equally inappropriate when interacting with a distant stranger, so I mostly try to play it safe and stick to more straightforward discourse with people I don't know well -- or, more accurately, with people who don't know me well.

tbh it drives me fuckin' crazy when people do that to me and I'm the cis white male trifecta. Usually it involves them making the exact same joke but just one level more obvious and then thinking they're the one who made the joke. To be fair I've accidentally done it to people too, but yeah I think it probably happens way more often to ladies due to cultural presumption of non-funniness.

Racist Patriarchy: "Hey let's kill some black men and justify it because white women" White Woman: "Kill All Men LOL" I'd say it's at least insensitive. I don't think anyone's arguing a causal relationship there, but pointing out that within the context of the intersectional conflicts of feminism and anti-racism it's really tone-deaf and not that funny.

Watching over us like a majestic eagle

I just got caught up on BoJack Horseman last night and that is also a super good show! I saw the first episode like half a year ago and didn't follow up because my first impression of it was just as a clever but empty series of jokes ala Family Guy, but it's actually a lot better than that. Every character comes off as a one-note joke at first, but none of them really are as simple as they seem, and like Arrested Development things that might seem like throwaway gags turn out to be important later. It's good. Funny, but not cheerful. Sad, but kind of hopeful.

No don't you get it they're all rich already they're just using Patreon to fleece suckers by sharing free art and insights that are unique to their position in life.

Huh, did it look to anyone else like they were pulling a lot of things from both of the previous games? Like in environments I thought I saw both Sinner's Rise and The Painted World, and one of the monsters crawling around looked like it was wearing Smough's armor. Kind of intriguing.

... why are we linking to these things again?

I mean as much as that is an absurd example, I think that's also an actual problem sometimes. Sometimes the language of social justice can be used as a bludgeon to shut down discourse rather than a shorthand to advance it, and that sucks.

So I kinda missed a month in my monthly make-music thing, but I've had a couple of double-months so I'm not gonna beat myself up about it. Here's the thing for last month: This was actually a piece that I started at the beginning of 2014 that I got like 70% finished but ran into some editing problems with and got completely frustrated with. Finally revisited it, arranged it, added a few parts, and finished it up. Shifting Terrain

It feels like the tendency to squeeze and distill the most batshit segments of right-wing politics has started to lead to its logical conclusion of constructing a solid white perfect and glowing gem of histrionic nonsense http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2015/08/02/cuckservative-the-dumbest-neo-nazi-hashtag-since-culturalmarxism-hits-the-big-time/

i like chrono trigger so fucking much