Thank you, federation, for bringing libs to our lair once again.

They really always default to the same fucking shit “BOT! XINNIE THE POOH!” like an actual NPC che-laugh

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      I don’t even want to get near that hornet’s nest, not this time. WoT’s fandom gives the ASOFAI fandom a run for its money for toxic tribalistic bullshit.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          They’re all old. Just push them over and run away.

          I’d have to check my chromosomes to see if I have the gender essentialist magic that allows me to push them over morshupls

          • combat_brandonism [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            it’s distilled through the lens of modern anglo bullshit so it’s not great on gender but a lot of wheel of time draws from norse mythology, including the gender-bendy parts. calling it gender essentialist is a pretty shallow read

            • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              but a lot of wheel of time draws from norse mythology

              calling it gender essentialist is a pretty shallow read

              Pretty much all fiction draws from something else. That doesn’t automatically give anything a pass, and calling it a “shallow read” implies that if I read it deeply I would automatically approve of its ideology. The Peterson Maneuver is kind of in bad taste. up-yours-woke-moralists

              EDIT: Also, saying “actually the gender magic isn’t essentialist because genders can shift like in Norse mythology” still doesn’t remove the fact that magic is gender coded in a contrived way from the start in the metaphysics of the fiction. A similar excuse could be made of Gygax’s establishment of racism with essentialist characterstics in D&D where creatures could shift to different races by magical means (such as the druid reincarnation spell, but not exclusive to that) but orcs are nonetheless “born evil” and it’s a “good act” to kill them no matter the circumstances.

              You’re allowed to like it, but accusing people of being “shallow” in their reading if they don’t agree with you is a lot like accusing people of “taking jordan-eboy-peterson out of context” if they don’t nod along to everything Professor Lobster says.

              • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Compare Discworld, which has strongly gendered magic but is made very clear that it’s a cultural construct and anyone can learn either mode (or both, though generally not at once) if they have the right mindset and inclination.

              • silent_water [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                there’s an explicitly trans male character that channels the appropriate magic. he’s considered the weird woman who channels male magic until it’s dropped that satan literally cursed him to live as a woman. it’s a very binary gender system but if you’re going to have eternal souls, it’s not an awful way to handle trans characters. there’s a lot wrong with the gender politics and Jordan sucks ass at writing women so there’s much riper targets to criticize the series over than this.

                • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  I feel better informed about that; I didn’t get that far. I still don’t have to like the series overall (the fandom tends to really put me off) but I appreciate your post.

                  • silent_water [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                    definitely. the first 6 books are ok if you turn your brain off and don’t think too hard about them but the later books really drag on and on and on and on. I had infinite patience as a kid and I miss that sometimes. the fandom is absolutely cursed.

              • combat_brandonism [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Love to have a cis man come at me about what is and isn’t gender essentialism because he perceives me as being a treat defender and therefore the target of his life’s vendetta.

                Calling it a shallow read doesn’t imply anything of the sort. As others pointed out in more detail than me, there are better places to critique the books and how they handle gender. Which is the point of what I wrote.

                I fucking knew when I wrote that reply I’d get an arrogant, condescending reply like this. I don’t like the vibe you’ve brought to hexbear since you’ve been here, and I will not reply further.

                • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  You took a criticism of a piece of fiction as an attack on yourself. When I talk about “treat defending” that tends to be what I’m talking about: when people identify with a consumer product to the point that they feel attacked personally if that product is criticized.

                  If you’re going to do that, that leaves no room for discussing (and especially not criticizing) the product outside of mandatory agreement with you.

                  EDIT:

                  and therefore the target of his life’s vendetta

                  I don’t like the vibe you’ve brought to hexbear since you’ve been here

                  I criticized a piece of fiction, not you or your identity. By contrast, you did directly make this about personal attacks on my character, and by your own admission, you’ve maintained that hostility for some time now.

                  • combat_brandonism [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                    Ok one more reply since this is an excellent example and to not reply would be at least one type of liberalism. I took your comparison of my words to lobster man as an attack on myself, which it was. My original reply was not hostile and intended to correct your critique so that you can better target future ridicule of these books. But because you have this weird persecution complex you interpret any disagreement as treat defending, and collapse further, more hostile replies into that. When you’re usually the one that escalates hostility in the first place!

                    I absolutely think these books are worthy of ridicule because they’re full of unexamined cringe patriarchy from start-to-finish.

                    I saw you do this exact same thing in a thread just yesterday or the day before. It’s incredibly off-putting.

                    It’s a shame because I’ve learned a lot from your posts (i.e. about how gross the gambo writer is, etc.) and they often prompt me to write replies to you before I delete them because I know that if my reply isn’t a 100% circlejerk of your point, you’re going to jump down my throat and immediately escalate into hostility over it. That’s what I can’t stand about your participation here.

                    I will be disengaging now and would appreciate you doing the same.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Sounds like Star Citizen’s big spenders. There was some le steak dinner party set up by the grifting company (so the big spenders would get exclusive access to yet another fucking internet spaceship jpeg sale), and the photos that the attendees send back to try to flex showed a room full of dumpy old white men. No one I could see was younger than, maybe, 45, and they were so, so white. One even had a fucking top hat because le irony. cringe

          • CTHlurker [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            Hasn’t that game been in development since 2010? So the dumpy 45-year old was at one point a slightly less dumpy 30-something who presumably had some disposable income to throw at a cool kickstarter game.