Mzuark

This shit is only going to escalate now that soldiers are able to come back from the genocide with absolutely zero reprecussions. The fact that this isn't front page news, that two foreign military personnel just carried out a chemical terrorist attack, is insane.

There's been a thought rattling around in my head for a long time and I haven't had a good way to articulate it until now, so I'm planning to ramble for a bit.

Everything going on in the world right now, in Palestine, in Ukraine and Africa is a good reminder that the mass killing of humans isn't some archaic practice that went out of style a thousand years ago. There are real consequences for dehumanization and calling for one group or another to be wiped out. It starts small, as many things do, as just a little grain in your head that some people are just lesser or worse and thus you'd be okay if they weren't around you. I find that a lot of this rhetoric comes from pop culure, you see it in books, movies, anime, and video games. Especially when it comes to the fantasy genre. For anime, you have stuff like Goblin Slayer or Frieren where Goblins/Demons are little more than animals and need to be genocided for the betterment of society. Books, you have Orcs in Tolkien (Something I appreciate about ASOIAF is that Grrm doesn't do this and always treats the idea of a full on massacre like it's horrible). But video games is where it goes all out.

--Nerd Speak Below This Line--

I've been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls lately, which means I've become reaquinted with the lore, and one thing aout TES that's always been a little concerning to me is how many of the backstories end in genocide and displacement. The Nords, the strapping 6-7 feet tall beautiful white people came down from the north and killed all the snow elves nearly to the last, the Orc homeland of Orsinium has been sacked and destroyed multiple times scattering them across the land, the Redguards showed up and killed pretty much everyone they could find for miles before being happy to stop in the desert, and the Empire has essentially been engaged in an extermination war with the Elves (who aren't saints either) for thousands of years. Two events that I think are really disturbing are Pelinal Whitestrake and Tiber Septim's conquest of the Summerset Isles. Now I'll be brief: Pelinal is this uber badass Terminator from the future who had a bad habit of murdering elves so hard that he came home from war covered in blood. Which wouldn't be too bad if they didn't specify that he often wiped out civillian populations and even other races that aren't even involved just because they look like them. Tiber Septim was mad that the High Elves were able to fight off his Imperialist bullshit multiple times and ultimately got a superweapon to go kill them all horribly until they submitted. Both these characters are beloved and their victims get the old "They deserved it" routine. And yes, the backstory does "justify" the purges because the Elves are almost always cartoonishly evil, but still. TES tries to be morally gray but that's kind of a lie because when all we ever see is what was written by the winners, it starts to look like that's what we're supposed to takeaway.

--Nerd Speak Ends--

When you wake up in the morning and see a news program about a school or hospital being bombed, seeing someone say "They deserved it" even in regards to a fictional species hurts in a deep way. People are programmed to think this shit is a joke from a young age. And some react violently when you try and pull them out of that mentality. So yes, I don't like genocide. Even if it's happening to to a nonsense race of animal people.

God, it's like being a kid again. I haven't played in around 11 years after an unfortunate accident where I deleted my Xbox's entire memory. Call me a casual all you want, but Skyrim really is one of my favorite games. I love that you can spend a whole day going in one direction and clearing out caves and finding random superpowerful items.

I doubt the tides are turning but still, it's refreshing.

Apparently the 14th Waffen SS was unique in that it was the sole branch of the Nazis that didn't do anything Nazi like, and never attacked the other Allies. Nope, just fought the communists.

How convenient.

Like the kind that made you stop and think for a second about how stupid the person advocating it is. For me, it's the classic "The biggest mistake in recent history was the Allies not pushing into Russia after the fall of Berlin."

There's just a level of imperialist arrogance and blood thirst in there that makes my skin crawl. The worst thing in human history was that the US didn't immediately betray the Soviets and wipe them out until they were sure communism was done for.

First of all, it's written in the most flowery and self aggrandizing way possible. The group is referred too as a "successful counter to Russian propaganda", meanwhile their actual sponsors and leaders are left notably unmentioned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFO_(group)

What do they actually do? Oh they just post irrevent memes. NOT PROPAGANDA, memes. Nothing meant to be taken seriously of course lol.

There is a reception section, and a recognition section, but no "criticism" section. Surely there are people out there who don't support this group right? According to Wikipedia, there is not. Every pushback comes from the Russians, the vatniks, and the orcs. No one cares about the harassment or the slurs, at least no one who matters.

As you can see in this image, the way Wikipedia is set up you'd need some notable source that claims that the group is divisive in some way...except there are no notable sources because all of the approved media says they're the heroes.

If there was ever any doubt that the doge pfps had government/corporate backing here you go. You aren't even allowed to mention them in a negative context.

Reading the news about the Jordan Neely murder is legitimately making my blood boil. Cons and libs both are in complete agreement that he was subhuman filth and deserved to die for the crime of being black, homeless and mentally ill all at once. You hear more about the dude's criminal record than you do the fact that he was fucking killed and it's madness.

But more than that, I'm starting to wonder why the fuck people even leave their houses in America anymore. Things are just not safe. You go to a public place, like a mall or a school and you run the risk of being caught in a mass shooting. You go home to your apartment and you might get arrested by a cop who somehow mistakes you for a guy on another floor in another building. You knock on the wrong door and the guy inside has full rights to shoot you execution style. And now you might witness a murder on the subway and watch the killer just walk off like nothing happened.

Things have gone insane lately, and the people have go insane trying to keep up. Honestly, I can't see life getting back to normal. Whatever that is for us.

I like how this patch was allegedly made by Taiwan's military but is in english and has an American meme on it.

NAFO and the Ukrainian flag's are already in the comments mindlessly showing their totally not artificial support. A lot of pledges to buy a boatload of these dumb things.

Water under the bridge I guess.

Mainly because a lot of the problems these guys are talking about just not materilaizing within the franchise have existed since like 2012.

Too many quips? Avengers 1, Dark World and Age of Ultron were infamous for this.

Every new movie is a sequel hook? Iron Man 2 was a 3 hour trailer for the Avengers, and this series popularized post credits scenes

Bad Special Effects? Phase 1 films looked like they were cooked up in about a week because their sets were so cheap.

Bad writing/Too much bait and switch? Remember how mad fans got over Iron Man 3 with the Mandarin twist?

I think all this discourse is less about Marvel "not being good anymore" and more about people starting to unconsciously realize that mindless corporate shlock isn't actually that gripping once you start holding it under the microscope. Like this series has been going for 16 years and hasn't actually changed, of course you're sick of it.

They were fully prepared to turn the working populace into slave labor and then the government was shocked to see that descision was unpopular.

One thing that catches my eye about this article is that the Guardian specifies "young people" as the cause for the pushback, Gen Z and Millennials, as if everyone else would be perfectly fine working until they fucking die. Just more "Zoomers bad" rhetoric.