This has probably been said before but god dammit I'm saying it anyway. Here we have Griffith, him and the Band have been granted knighthood and prestige, the highest glory a commoner could hope for, his dream is finally in hand! But he does not smile, no no, not until he turns and meets the eyes of Guts does a smile finally break through his cold facade, a beaming grin he shares with one of the only people who understands him. Fuck Griffith.

First time, long time. I remember a post you wrote back when Hill-dawg broke out the 'basket of deplorables', and how that gut reaction became more and more prophetic. Do you think something like '10-15% of you suck' could hit similar in public consciousness, or have we completely blown past the point where rhetoric even matters?

Oh man, I’d forgotten that one.  That’s... incredibly fucking weird... to read.  (Is that what I sound like?  I AM SO SORRY!!!).  Especially how it ends “But goddamn.  What a fuck-up.  Next time, maybe don’t anoint such a fuck-up.”  HAHAHAHAHA WHOOPS!!!!

But yeah:  I’m just some dumb guy.  And right this second, jesus christ, I have no fucking Earthly idea what’s going on in this country or what happens in November... No idea.  No clue.  Anyone who has a guess in them just seems insane to me, just massive hubris...

On the one hand, you have more than 100,000 people dead, and while a lot of countries have handled this badly, it sure seems like there’s a lot of blame to be placed on Trump here.  But the people who seem angriest about this whole situation are... fired-up right wingers who are angry they can’t get their haircuts at Red Lobster anymore.  All the “Buy a shrimp, get a haircut” coupons they’ve been hoarding for years have been useless!  Useless!  Indiana Republicans all wanted a Caesar Cut and crippling diarrhea, and now they’re bereft and tragically clean-assed...

And then you have the country kind of plunging into chaos here. And I don’t really know how that plays because I’m (a) too aware that I’m a cynical moron, and (b) part of me doesn’t care (?) because the moral calculus here seems so pressing that going to the place of thinking about “how this plays” feels utterly soulless and psychotic.  But just looking at how fired up people online are to shout “No, this is different from why I wanted to own an assault rifle and a bazooka to protect myself from the government... BECAUSE LOOTERS”... is troubling... I saw one guy just say “people on the coasts are going to be surprised when they find out how the rest of this country sees this shit differently than they do” ... he was a white supremacist but like... But again: see above re “don’t care.”  It’s just not the moment where I want to care about that...

And I don’t know how much the Russia thing just turning into a fart has kind of robbed the “Trump will ruin everything, you guys” people of credibility.  They yelled about their little Russia theories more than the actual and unholy horror show the last four years of this administration has inflicted us with, and I don’t know where that’s left anyone...   

So I worry there’s going to be some enthusiastic Republicans out there, possibly.  And I worry a lot that people who voted Gary Johnson come home to Trump this time around-- people get mad about third party voters, but Gary Johnson really saved Clinton from being truly embarrassed last time, electorally.  Disgusted Republicans swung things blue somewhat in ‘18 but... I just have no idea what happens now!  I don’t know where they’re at-- maybe they’re still in that mode!  Possibly!  But... Trump had an all-time high approval rating with Republicans at the beginning of the year.  He’s at 86% now (higher approval with Republican women than Republican men!).  He’s only at 40% with independents, though.  And electing a Democratic Congress got... a House of Republicans run by Nancy Pelosi, ooooooh, so maybe those people are like “oh... right... the Democrats.”  She clapped sarcastic one time and tore up a sheet of paper, but besides that, uhhhhhhhh... So I don’t know what happens there in November...

But I think it’s possible Biden can run an absolutely dogshit campaign and have a really good chance!  I mean, all of that stuff could break his way.  But... last I saw, Biden was doing worse with young people than Clinton was doing.  I haven’t dug into those numbers, or anything, because I was busy reading 3-d porn visual novels, but ... young people were part of the Obama coalition.  And if any young person told me like “Yeah, Biden baby” I’d just think they’re a fucking chump, a real loser, one of those incels I read about in the more judgmental 3-d porn visual novels.  I don’t suspect that people like me who are like “good luck with Biden assholes -- fuck the world-- I’'m going to spend Election Day going to the most erotic places Steam can take me instead of voting for Joe fucking Biden” are a huge number, even if there are a lot of people peacocking like that on a twitter or a tumblr.  But ... the ‘16 problem of the incompatabilities and fissures in the base of the Party seems even worse this year to me than before so...

So I mean... Right now, the volume on everything else besides the election is so loud after months of quarantine and now this last couple weeks of American life and this is so early in the cycle (Clinton’s thing was in September, after she’d disappeared during the campaign to be President for a month to go on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard), I don’t think the 10-15% thing will get any traction (and I haven’t seen much so far but I haven’t been looking-- there’s a bad history of saying shit like that, but like... it’s just not the news cycle where it’s going to stick).  But the bigger problem that it points to sure aren’t going away anytime soon-- that Biden’s brain-dead, that he’s incapable at campaigning without either goofing constantly or yelling at people that he hates them and feels entitled to their vote (what is that??), that he needed a VP who people would feel shore up his biggest problem-- his melted brains, and instead he’s turned the VP position into some kind of “let’s hire a Girl!  I saw Captain Marvel in the theaters!” feel good reward-for-being-a-girl merit badge thing, rather than just DOING it, selecting a girl and then being like “she was obviously the most qualified person!” (on some false and kind of offensive premise that women vote as some kind of monolith based just on ‘representation’ or some stupid Ghost of Comics Alliance shit like that, and without their own political thoughts, needs, sentiments), that he yells shit like “Charlamagne set me up!” when his melted brains make him say stupid shit, that he’s literally shitting himself on television, etc., etc., etc....  

Or I’m thinking your “actually concise!  how does being concise work???” point that we’re past the point of the things anyone saying mattering... just might be true... Which might be good.  It’s weird to think about that bit.   

I don’t know.  There’s a lot going on, there’s a lot to worry about, and I’m just some dumb, middle-aged guy who doesn’t know anything both generally and especially at this moment...  All I know for sure is there aren’t going to be making any good comedy movies anytime soon.  Remember comedy movies?  Man, I miss that shit.

um, actually, sweaty ♡ arisa ♡ re: yoshiko, yata ♡ attn: yeichi

( tw: swearing )

Honestly? In this moment? Arisa loved life. Life was great. Life was amazing. If she had a cup of coffee, she would be sitting back and sipping at that, watching this whole show go down. The recording was disturbing, but it was also….kind of whatever. Like, they all knew someone was dead and they all knew they had been tortured, of course it would sound awful. She just pretended it was a recording from a movie and she felt fine. No, she was enjoying the assault against Héloïse. So, instead of coffee, she was just standing around and sipping on imaginary I Hate Héloïse Juice. She didn’t even have to do anything to get everyone to hate her; she did that one herself.

Still, she listened to everything going on and pocketed away important things in the back of her mind. She was managing to stay pretty organized until that god awful personality quiz blurted out a result and of course it was the weirdo. She listened to what he had to say before actually bursting out into laughter.

Once she managed to get herself under control, she pointed at Yata with a predatory smile.

“Ooooooh, an insult to her is an insult to you? Well, I would hate for you to feel left out and neglected! God, should I start with your appearance or your personality? Honestly, both are so fucking revolting and deplorable, yeah, I do know what that means, that I could have a field day with both! If you and her are what people call friends, I don’t fuckin’ want’em. What’re you gonna do, whisper at me spookily? Ooooo, I’m quaking in my pumps. You might be a little more intimidating if you didn’t look like something out of a shitty parody horror movie, but that’s just my opinion. Of course, I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking it.”

Growing bored of talking shit about Yata and quickly deciding to give the Three Fucksketeers some time to think about what the fuck they’re talking about and reconsider their…well, everything, Arisa listens to what Yoshiko has to add to this all and shakes her head.

“Hey, hey, leave Rachele-chan out of this, yeah? She couldn’t climb up the chute so it couldn’t be her. If you remember, she’s the one those two-”

And Arisa pointed to the Duvals.

“-tried to kill. She…She couldn’t fight them off and they knew it…Leave her be and find someone else to accuse of hiding their talent. If we accuse Rachele-chan for hiding hers, then how can we know if we’re all being honest? We have a lot of people here with fake names, what’s a fake talent compared to that one, yeah?”

After speaking, she sighs and shakes her head.

“But I think we’re all being a bit too….mean right now. We should be focusing on making sure we can solve a murder! And we’re ganging up on poor, poor Yeichi-kun. What has he ever done to any of us? You’re all just being cruel! I trust him. If he says that he didn’t kill anyone, then he didn’t and you all should just accept that.”

Moving away from her podium, she walks over to Yeichi and puts a hand on his upper arm, patting it in what she believed was comfort, smiling sweetly up at him. She had a feeling she was going to immensely regret ever touching this….could she call him a boy? He was so…ugh that she was hesitant to call him anything but a slob.

“…But that does make me think. When you’re busy lugging around deadweight…I assume you move the animals you stuff, yeah? That must get real heavy…Gosh, you must have some killer upper body strength, Yei-kun!~ C’mon, y’don’t hafta be so humble…”