Transcription: Destiny and the Liberal Mind Prison

BreadTuber Thought Slime recently uploaded a video essay that linked together a lot of problems that I have with the state of American political discourse, and he forged those connections into a coherent argument that I think requires only a basic grasp of current events to track.  It's a conceptual argument, presenting different viewpoints and showing how they interact when compared in specific ways, and the facts he uses are things pretty much all self-identified liberals and most urban and suburban conservatives would agree are true - or at least very easily looked up.

I showed it to Lady M this morning and she said it was "mind-blowing," so I copied the auto-transcript and cleaned it up below (I start at the meat of his argument and skip the Eyeball Zone).  I highly recommend the video, it's only 27 minutes long and the transcript is so that you can come back to certain parts or read it without NSFW audio.  Enjoy!

Transcription begins at approximately 4:20:

...his mind has been imprisoned. His imagination has been suppressed by the most insidious and ubiquitous brainwashing program the world has ever seen. It's called "liberalism."

Wait, what the frick, Thought Slime? What are you talking about? Uh-oh, I bet some of you are probably confused right now. Particularly those that are new around these parts. You may have thought, based on your understanding of the left-right political spectrum, that as a leftist, I am therefore a liberal. You might consider values like LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, anti-racism, all things that I care deeply about, to be liberal values. You might be worried at this moment, I'm about to say some real conservative shit, because you've been taught that liberal and conservative are the boundaries of serious political discourse. And allow me to set your mind at ease. Shh, shh - find calm, my friend.

I'm not a conservative, I'm not about to attack liberalism from the right. I want to attack it from the left.

Housekeeping Note

I've been getting a little overwhelmed by the internet lately, so yesterday I did a "digital detox."  Don't worry, my colon's fine, I just didn't do anything on the internet at all and only used my phone to make phone calls.  I really liked how it went.  So I think I'm going to keep it up for a while.

I'll still put things up here from time to time, but I'm no longer even pretending to have a schedule.  I also have some IRL projects coming up that require more focus from me.  I'm sure I'll eventually get bored of being offline in A Big Way, but for now this is good.  Cheers!

"Project: Spiral" - Art Update #21

Another self-portrait, very work-in-progress (as in, barely got started), but the holidays have a tendency to derail so whatevs.

 

Righty-o, then.  See you over the weekend for a chapter update!

Christmas Eve

Christmas was stolen from the pagans:  the winter solstice; the changing of seasons; the darkest day of the year.

Today has been a long day for me.

"A Tale of Fire and Panic" - Chapter 12: Sailing to Salinas

If you are new to Project:  Spiral, then click here to read the teaser, or click here to read from the Prologue.  Otherwise, welcome back!

Content Warning!

This story contains instances, descriptions, and frank discussions of:  depression, personality disorders, and other mental health issues; suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts; child abuse and neglect; graphic violence, war crimes, and institutional/systemic violence; gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, and transphobia.  Reader discretion is advised.

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"Project: Spiral" - Art Update #20

Yeah, so it just kinda hit me now that this self-portraiture doesn't really have much to do with the story of P:S, but it's something low-stakes that I can pick away at over the high-activity of the holidays, so I'm fine with it.  I got this one done at last!

Click for huge!

I like the grayscale one better than the full-color, and part of that is probably because my color-sampling method isn't the best - I literally pick an area of skin which I think "looks normal," use the smudge tool a whole bunch, then use the eyedropper tool and start over if I don't like it.  This is, of course, in keeping with my only real art technique of "fuck with it until it looks right."  But I'm sure I'll improve with practice.

Anyway, that's all for today.  Cheers!

Transgender Tuesday: Arguing on the Internet, Tumblr Edition!

So I try to keep up on the various social media platforms, but I inevitably stick around on a few of them and don't... really... do much.  That's what Tumblr has been for me, except then I gradually started getting more involved.  Over the past couple of weeks, I got into it with a couple of transphobes.  We touched on a variety of topics that I have been wanting to write posts on, so I was unusually well-prepared for this internet debate (or at least this iNtErNeT dEbAtE), but this will serve as a sort of bookmark for now.

It's a bit long, though, so I'll mainly stick to screenies & transcripts, and keep the commentary to a minimum.

"A Tale of Fire and Panic" - Chapter 11: Leaving Noob Isle

If you are new to Project:  Spiral, then click here to read the teaser, or click here to read from the Prologue.  Otherwise, welcome back!

Content Warning!

This story contains instances, descriptions, and frank discussions of:  depression, personality disorders, and other mental health issues; suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts; child abuse and neglect; graphic violence, war crimes, and institutional/systemic violence; gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, and transphobia.  Reader discretion is advised.

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"Project: Spiral" - Art Update #19

Sliding this one in under the door!  Look, between the tutoring gig I took on (which just recently ended), holiday activities, arguing with fascists and proto-fascists on the internet, and mental health stuff, I actually haven't been able to do more than 20 hours of work on P:S in the last two months.  This is me getting back on track.  I had a bunch of written material ready to go, but it has all run out, and now it's friggin' Christmas.  ANYWAY.  I'm just writing off the last three weeks of missed updates, because I love myself and sometimes I just fall off the map like most authors and artists do from time to time.  Here's some work on my self-portrait, trying to just bang out the solid color fields:

Click for huge.  I haven't blacked in the lace on the dress,but that's a whole fkn thing and it's my bedtime, so whatevs.

That is all for now.  I'll see you on Saturday for a chapter update.  I've been struggling with this one, because Chapter 11 (Journey to Salinas) is forked in three different directions for most of it, and there are plot points from each of them that I want to include, which makes it way too long.  But if Chapter 11 is split into two, then Chapter 12 (Over the Sands and Along the Coast) becomes Chapter 13 (Hope's End), and Chapter 13 is supposed to be when Pannych dies.  So... uhh... I mean, that was just a happy numerological coincidence, and I'm willing to let it go.  But I spent way too long staring at the screen and trying to decide.  I'm decided now, though, and Pannych dies in Chapter 14 now.  Oh, well.  Maybe I'll smash together a couple chapters earlier on when it's committed to paper.  We'll see.  Cheers!

101 Interesting Things, part fifty-nine: YouTube Cover Bands

We thought the internet would enable people to educate themselves, put an end to disinformation by making fact-checking easily available to all, bring the world closer together through open communication, and radically open up artistic collaboration.

Uhh... instead, we enabled people to look at cats (and porn), gave superpowers to disinformers, balkanized the world with micro-communities that enable all kinds of awfulness from pedos to Nazis, and... wait.  We actually radically opened up artistic collaboration.  One outta four... is an F minus minus.  But at least it's not an F minus minus minus!

Today, I want to talk about some of my favorite cover bands that I only found out about because of YouTube.  There are cover bands older than YouTube, of course, such as Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.  But YouTube makes it possible to check out their sound and then... do whatever?  I guess you could participate in the crowdfunding, but even if you don't, there's still the ad revenue they get.

Ew, that means I like something a corporation did.  Le sigh.  I can't be all-commie all the time, I guess.

"A Tale of Fire and Panic" - Chapter 10: The Influences

If you are new to Project:  Spiral, then click here to read the teaser, or click here to read from the Prologue.  Otherwise, welcome back!

Content Warning!

This story contains instances, descriptions, and frank discussions of:  depression, personality disorders, and other mental health issues; suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts; child abuse and neglect; graphic violence, war crimes, and institutional/systemic violence; gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, and transphobia.  Reader discretion is advised.

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"Project: Spiral" - Art Update #18

I have missed a couple of art updates while everything else has been on autopilot during this busy time.  Rather than backdate a make-up post, I'm just gonna leave 'em like that to rub my nose in it.  And here's a self-portrait I'm working on, because I don't feel like doing Tom's cabin right now.

I realized at some point that this is the first time I've ever tried to draw myself, unless you count a thing I did when I was fifteen:

I still like that drawing, kinda.  Hey, it's just a couple weeks away from being twenty years old!

Anyway, here's the sketch overlaid on the photo, because I always think that looks neat:

OK.  Time to get back on these art updates!