who wants a list of some of my best videos about video game economic crisis events theyre kind of my favorite subject of all time
“the falador massacre”, an infamous runescape event in which a player was able to pvp kill in non-pvp areas, resulting in thousands of player items and gold being looted from corpses with no possibility of rollback
oh hell yes
From "Drummer" Magazine, Issue 11, December 1976
Oh shit isn’t this referencing how ‘the curse’ used to be slang for menstruating?
So not just monster boyfriends, but *trans* monster boyfriend!!!!!
Spending years toiling at wizard school in the notoriously elitist necromancy department, barely scraping by for several years before they begrudgingly give me my necromancer degree, all so that I can go sit on the beach and revive ediacaran fossils on the beach and look at the creatures.
Spending years infuriated at wizard school in the notoriously lax druidry department, getting no grant money and having to practically teach myself for my dissertation before they remember to give me my druid degree, all so that I can go sit on the beach with you and ensure that the ediacaran fossils on the beach you revive are able to fulfill their dietary needs and won't destabilize the supernatural ecosystem.
I'm fully on board with criticizing people who say China is evil and bad – it's propaganda. But can you recommend any good reading on why China is actually an important leftist project and not more imperial state capitalism? This is the critique I hear from my Western left bubble, but I don't feel thoroughly educated on this and am receptive to alternative arguments.
Thanks and sorry for posting from my weird kink alt – it's the one that's on my phone and I can't sleep. 🌻
For the specific question you're asking, I think the works of Mobo Gao are the best, but I'll also include some books about the Chinese revolution because I believe they provide some critical context. Of course these recommendations will be in English, because I'm not good enough at reading Chinese to understand Chinese texts (working on it!)
The Battle for China's Past: Mao & the Cultural Revolution by Mobo Gao deconstructs a lot of the sinophobia and anti-communism in the way the west (and many Chinese people) view the cultural revolution. In a similar vein, The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village by Dongping Han is about the authors village and how the cultural revolution & communism was able to empower previously downtrodden peasants.
Constructing China: Clashing views of the People's Republic by Mobo Gao is more about modern perceptions of Chinese people, and how sinophobia is produced on a global scale. Very important text.
On a more historical side, I think the works of Han Suyin are essential: she was one of the only english writers who spoke positively about China (and lived in China!) during the communist revolution. Her autobiographies, starting with A Mortal Flower gave me a lot of insight into many critical events in Chinese history.
She also wrote biographies which were heavily researched. I'm currently reading Wind in the Tower: Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Revolution. She was also friends with Zhou Enlai, and wrote a book about him titled Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China, which I've heard very good things about.
In terms of modern writers who are fighting against Sinophobia right now, Vijay Prashad is incredible. The Qiao Collective has many good articles about China. The podcast Decolonized Buffalo has some great episodes about Chinese history and modern anti-communism.
If I think of more recommendations I'll add them later.
some articles on the topic!
TROUBLEMAKING FRONTIER PREACHER
MANICALLY AMBITIOUS CON ARTIST
EUROPEAN NOBLE FAILSON
DOOMED FRONTIER EXPLORER
On a border between two States Someone has written, “Fuck your nationalism. We are all Earthlings.”
And on the Mexican border, Someone has ripped through a fence Of reinforced chicken wire With bolt cutters, And erected a hammock By suspending it Between two of the fence’s Concrete pillars.
After swinging gently back and forth, From Texas to Mexico and then From Mexico back to Texas, They doze off; contemptuous Of the security guards Patrolling this artificial demarcation – For, once upon a time, Texas was Mexico And Texas didn’t exist.
When Eugene Debs was imprisoned For conscientious objection in World War One He said, on September 11th 1915, “I have no country to fight for My country is the earth I’m a citizen of the world.”
– Heathcote Williams, “No Borders”
The Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldua
Propaganda pamphlet from the Korean war trying to convince American soldiers to defect, early 1950s
They were right
“Red is the first color of the rainbow” - Pro-LGBT propaganda poster from Filipino communist Emiliana Kampilan (c. 2019)
Fuck that post going around saying "you can have coffee in your story without justifying it :) you don't need to explain everything :)" I want, no, I DEMAND a fully researched ethnobotanical paper on every single food item in your work, if you don't explain to me where did potatoes come from in your fantasy setting or don't explain how the industry of coffee works over interstellar distances with full detail you are doing things wrong and I personally hate you and I hate your stupid story, fuck you
Why are your stupid little wizards and knights eating potato stew in your dumb European middle ages fantasy world. Where did they get potatoes from. Where is the center of domestication of potatoes, do you have a fantasy Andean civilization? What are the social and economic consequences of having such a calorie rich crop in cold climates. I don't care about "themes" or "enemies to lovers with found family", I didn't ask about that. Where does your idiot space captain gets their shitty coffee from. Is it imported from Earth? Are there coffee growing worlds? Is it an alien species replacement with the same name? What are the social consequences of that? Don't try to change the subject, I'll stop pointing the gun when I want, I'm trying to have a conversation here,
gold in them there tags
“Perhaps you have forgotten. That’s one of the great problems of our modern world, you know. Forgetting. The victim never forgets. Ask an Irishman what the English did to him in 1920 and he’ll tell you the day of the month and the time and the name of every man they killed. Ask an Iranian what the English did to him in 1953 and he’ll tell you. His child will tell you. His grandchild will tell you. And when he has one, his great-grandchild will tell you too. But ask an Englishman—” He flung up his hands in mock ignorance. “If he ever knew, he has forgotten. ‘Move on!’ you tell us. ‘Move on! Forget what we’ve done to you. Tomorrow’s another day!’ But it isn’t, Mr. Brue.” He still had Brue’s hand. “Tomorrow was created yesterday, you see. That is the point I was making to you. And by the day before yesterday, too. To ignore history is to ignore the wolf at the door.”
- A Most Wanted Man, John le Carré
John le Carré has not, at any point, been fucking around.
we need more songs about werewolves
I've been keeping track of werewolf songs for my own playlist:
my conclusion is that the 80s was full of werewolves and Gustavo Cerati was one
I love the people in the notes going 'uhm actually he was German' because it's made fairly clear by other points in the post that it's not referring to Marx (Marx didn't write about monopoly-capitalism forming into imperialism, and Marx wrote closer to 200 years ago than 100) to the point that, in as much of a Gotcha as it is, it implies they themselves've never read Marx, let alone Lenin.
i'm the guy who writes the books that the protagonist in supernatural horror movies frantically reads somewhere in act ii. job's pretty easy. lot of "legends of vampires have recurred all throughout human history" and "demonologists agree that the quickest way to un-summon a demon is to trap it in a cursed object". no citations of course; they don't pay me citation money. i had to learn html back in the early aughts when everyone started seeking their supernatural info on websites they found via top search engines like FINDLER and WEBSIGHT but that's died down now which is great because i didn't have it in me to pick up css. currently working on a new book about horses that are evil. it's called HORSES THAT ARE EVIL in all caps so the protagonist can find it quickly to yank off the library shelf. it will be published 35 years ago.
Fuck that post going around saying "you can have coffee in your story without justifying it :) you don't need to explain everything :)" I want, no, I DEMAND a fully researched ethnobotanical paper on every single food item in your work, if you don't explain to me where did potatoes come from in your fantasy setting or don't explain how the industry of coffee works over interstellar distances with full detail you are doing things wrong and I personally hate you and I hate your stupid story, fuck you
Why are your stupid little wizards and knights eating potato stew in your dumb European middle ages fantasy world. Where did they get potatoes from. Where is the center of domestication of potatoes, do you have a fantasy Andean civilization? What are the social and economic consequences of having such a calorie rich crop in cold climates. I don't care about "themes" or "enemies to lovers with found family", I didn't ask about that. Where does your idiot space captain gets their shitty coffee from. Is it imported from Earth? Are there coffee growing worlds? Is it an alien species replacement with the same name? What are the social consequences of that? Don't try to change the subject, I'll stop pointing the gun when I want, I'm trying to have a conversation here,
