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rainbow-femme · 5 months

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I just. I’m never going to understand Kevin’s happy ending being that he ends up with Thea

Thea, who shows up after Kevin makes the terrifying decision to announce part of the abuse he suffered on television in a way that for the first time directly implicates his abuser, and is speaking in a way Neil describes as “angry and mocking” about what Kevin just did

Kevin says “If you’re going to believe me, you need to see Jean first” and Thea does not deny needing to be convinced. Meaning the implication is that Thea is fully aware of the extent of abuse the normal Ravens dealt with, and when hearing that her ex who escaped in the middle of the night did so because of a severe injury given to him by a teammate her reaction is to show up and need to be given a reason to believe him, the abuse victim, and she’s clearly angry at him the entire time she’s demanding evidence of his abuse

There also is an implication with how she talks that she is angry Kevin did not tell her these things himself, even though, again, her reaction was to get angry at Kevin and need to be given a reason to believe he actually was abused

And it’s been confirmed that Thea will always view herself as a Raven, the thing Kevin risked his life to escape, and that she views Kevin’s life of abuse as “no harm no foul” because the abuser died and the horrific physical and mental injuries didn’t stop him from playing the sport

I just. How is that a good ending for Kevin? That he escaped an abusive cult and spends the rest of his life with someone still connected to the cult who views the direct abuse he got from the cult leader as basically a wash because he’s still playing the sport and the cult leader is dead now?

I mean just have it be like Allison or Renee where he marries a woman he meets after the books end, someone who represents the future he chose and not the abusive past he had to endure and then escape. I just don’t see how him ending up with someone who thinks the cult he barely escaped from with his life was ultimately not that bad and she’s proud to have been a part of it is in any way happy for him.

It just feels like Kevin is never actually going to be able to escape his past and he’s going to spend his life with someone skeptical of his experiences after spending years with the Foxes and specifically Andrew whose views are “you are never at fault for what other people did to you, you can always move forward, it’s never too late to leave and be happy, there will always be someone who can see what happened to you and believe the best of you and want to support you moving forward”

Why make him a fan of the Trojans, whose culture is the exact opposite of the Ravens, and not at least pair him off with someone there? Have one of the women they play against in that game approach him with compassion like Renee does to Jean? Suggest that she’s happy to support him in any way he needs and then show him calling her a few times in the background of other scenes?

Also the extra content I just

Kevin keeps an apartment right near the place he was abused his whole life

He has a daughter he forces to play Exy even though she doesn’t want to, that she views it as being forced into a life she never wanted but ultimately it’s fine because she meets their expectations. Like that just sounds like Kevin physically and mentally goes back to the place he was in before and does to his kid some of what was done to him, that he makes his child so miserable she becomes an “emotional nightmare” but it’s written off as fine because she plays well, similar to how Kevin having no choice in life and being treated horrifically was ok because it made him play well

#I just need to keep reminding myself if it’s not on the page it’s not real and you can decide for yourself what happens off the page #you cut two pages from this book and you make it so much better #why give Kevin an ending like this #it’s like having Neil end up with someone in the mafia why connect Kevin to someone from that part of his life #especially when he’s a fan of the Trojans and they represent the exact opposite culture from the ravens #aftg #all for the game

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therevengeoffrankenstein · 4 days

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the implications....

folie a deux meaning / folie a deux album cover / pete's bear hat(s)

#myevilposts #pete wentz #also the teddy bear rug would be fun to mention in this discussion but these ones are more serious.#the thing with pw is that sometimes he does things that are so devious and strategic and genius and sneaky and poignant #and other times it just seems that way and was actually just him being silly.#this goes both ways btw.#like a lot of mania era stuff i feel was mocked as him being silly but was actually deep and then a lot of older stuff #that people obsess over dissecting was actually Not That Deep on his account at least.#it's kinda not his fault that he's a cartoon character. kinda. but he knows how to lean into it.#pw understands camp better than 99% of users on this website tbh.#fall out boy #also pete and bebe wearing matching bear hats during hiatus. is like exactly what i'm talking about. lol.#the implication being that the bear/becoming a bear represents embracing the madness and becoming one with the grizzly bear #that the human in the bear costume is carrying on the folie cover.#i feel like it's not a coincidence that the guy looks like pete too. it might be but i always figured it was intentional.#the grizzly bear/real life equivalent to the madness of folie a deux as a condition is open to interpretation more #i think. obviously it could represent the co dependence between pete and patrick. but it could also #represent pete's marriage as a whole to the band/his work.#i think it's most noteworthy again that he wore the bear hat matching with bebe DURING HIATUS.#similarly to the stump club shirt i feel like it's pretty clear he was incredibly torn up about the hiatus.#maybe it's that pete had a co dependent relationship with his public image/identity within the scope of fob's fame.#A LOT of black cards calls back to fob / is in response to or commentary of his fame from fob.#because of course it did/was. fob was intrinsic to his celebrityhood. and that celebrityhood obviously was intrinsic to him.#this is not to downplay the other aspects of his identity. the opposite actually.#especially considering that his public image was so skewed and dumbed down and he was rightfully very upset about that #and that is very prevalent/important/vital i think to understanding things like black cards as a whole.

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river-of-wine · 8 months

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Perhaps one day people will understand that House Beneviento functions completely differently in the main story than it does in Shadows of Rose because of who is controlling it and why they are doing so

#house beneviento in the story is about Ethan’s fear #house beneviento in shadows of rose is about rose’s trauma #Donna is making Ethan experience his fears through hallucination #losing Mia and Rose #Mia hiding something from him #rose being hurt and broken beyond repair #eveline is making rose relive her trauma #forcing her to recreate scenes of her real bullying #constantly mocking her #taking out her feelings of abandonment on rose #what rose is experiencing is not about her fear #especially not the Mia mannequins #those are honestly the least important part of the house even though they’re the most memorable #it represents eveline’s anger at rose being Mia’s daughter when she wanted to be that #and she doesn’t understand why rose was better than her #it isn’t about rose being afraid of Mia #they wrote her out of her life because they didn’t know what else to do with her #house beneviento for rose isn’t about what she’s afraid of #the whole story of shadows of rose is rose overcoming her trauma and bullying #and learning to accept part of herself that she was made fun of for #and house beneviento along with eveline are there to reinforce that

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artekai · 2 years

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I'm weak, and what's wrong with that? Boy, oh boy, I love it when I fall for that

#vent art #(but i'm better now so please feel free to ignore that ^^)#oc: fross #oc tag #horizon oc #horizon au #deni's art #deni's stuff #oc art #smth smth for so many years i've used the darkness to feel but now i've got things in my life that are actually real #smth smth won't you help me sober up? growing up it made me numb and i wanna feel something again #smth smth 'cause i'd rather feel pain than nothing at all #smth smth at night i burn myself with cigarettes just to somehow prove i'm still alive #smth smth so will i have the strength to tell the darkness (to tell tyler darkness) goodbye?#< oh hey! i could make one of those poetry weaving things just with these five songs lmao #anyways do you ever think about fross? like really THINK about him? not what he IS but what he REPRESENTS? i do.#look at that smile! that is a man who is feeling the most alive he's felt in decades.#understandable. i too would've fallen in love with the guy who stabbed me <3

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oscill4te · 6 months

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One day i will not be obsessed with the cr/amp twins. Maybe i will like it a normal amount. Or maybe not even like it at all one day. I intertwined that show too deeply with my identity. Generally when I am super hyperfixated on something, i am using it as escapism from thinking about my real life.

#like to me 2023 is just mass escapism via an obscure cartoon and internet addiction. kind of sad.#2022 was awful though so 2023 is a mass improvement but damn #some parts of myself looove the show. others parts hate it for what it represents in my life.#i also should stop using tumblr/my phone or at least limit my usage. but. one day at a time #escapism is just nice in general #txt #not in the longrun but it feels so great in the moment being immersed in something that isnt your real life #when your current real life sucks ass but feel too scared to make those big changes that are essential #to you being happy and stable in the long run #easier to forget your real life and just watch shitty cartoons. idk. i shouldn't even be blogging this stuff publicly lol #like i am genuinely not well. i am a benign lolcow.#who overshares and tbh i never even expected this blog to even get followers o.o so now im like #maybe i should stop. i dont know. find better outlets. lol #maybe try to connect with my realworld. my brain desperately doesn't want to leave the fantasy escapism world it created though #i feel like an age regressed loser and idk I want to shape up so badly #im 24 i should be way more ahead than this yknow. i just stagnated in 2023. because 2021-2022 was so awful #idk its complicated man #like 2023 was needed. but it is such a hazy blur. it feels so unreal. we are still in 2023 and it already feels so far away #i feel i need to try to change my life and priorities in 2024. i just have no roadmap. no people to ask..#i have to teach myself on my own. ill probably make a lot of mistakes but thats okay #my next goal is to try a new job even though it scares the everliving shit out of me #i accepted i wont be able to drive safely so I need to carefully plan. i need to be okay with taking risks. i need too.#i need to work on my tardiness social skills and my appearance so I can get a new job too without insta rejection #i dont know. i want to prove my family wrong too and have good things. good mental health. financially stable. takes care of herself.#ik spite is a shitty motivator. but i just wanna prove it to myself. that I am capable of m #okay too many tags smh. gonna stop here

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always-a-joyful-note · 2 years

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I’ve passed 52% (yay!) and I have so many thoughts written down (yes, I take notes while reading (mostly keyboard smashes, though)). But I’m just gonna appreciate all of the relationships being portrayed here between the characters. And the level of complexity their personalities and worldviews and arcs are allowed. And also the fact that they’re allowed to show deep, deep emotion as much as they hide/deny it...and that their changes are so brutally shown to us readers and the people around them.

Just how? I don’t know how this book managed to show such character development, such a progression and changing of relationships, such nuance between characters (not just Dokja @ everyone, but also between the sides themselves), such belief in each other and the person they’ve become (312′s “I believe in the story they had built” - I’m dead), such lightheartedness but also such depth between everyone...

*suddenly throws the book into the wall* And how does it keep one devastating me with all these random exchanges!?!? It’s happening so close to each other and yet it seems so well built-up and paced?! I cannot....

#to protect my sanity and my emotions i have decided i don't like ORV anymore #that is a lie i'm so sorry....#but guyssssss.....all the CHARACTERS #like...yoo sangah being such a GOOD-hearted person and yet...#...i think she represents a person who wants to be bad as well but has such strong ethics that she CAN'T #she can only do small misdeeds that make her feel like a bad person....#and all this time i THINK she's warring between feeling like an awful person and being unable to actually do truly awful things...#...and finally just feeling as if she's lying to the world (impostor syndrome i guess?)#disclaimer all these opinions are my own and dont really reflect on the story #(wow that's a LONG tag i created....)#and seriously...the way everyone's changed for the better...#the way dokja went from 'yeah im just using everyone lol' to 'i missed them...'#the way....nope no....i shouldn't keep crowding my poor post's tags #excuse me rambling in the tags #fandom spamdom #note's nonsense #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #also i have so many reblogs in my drafts to reblog but am procrastinating because of this book and real life #i know i'm just basically echoing all my previous react posts but i really am emotionally deceased because of this book #anyway

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awordwasthebeginning · 1 year

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#this wasn't prompted by anything so don't worry #i've just been thinking about it from time to time #i think it might be helpful for me (and maybe for others too) to separate fandom and activism #not in the sense of 'oh but i watch [show] because it has great queer/poc/... rep! i'm doing my part'#but more in the sense of #'this book/film/show has problematic aspects and so does the fandom. but it is a hobby and does not define my political views'#because it doesn't and it shouldn't #being a fan of something means that i enjoy it. and others may not enjoy it for a variety of reasons some of which political.#that does not mean that our separate views of the thing define how we interact with each other outside of fandom #or how we approach (political) issues in real life #(obviously it depends. jkr making a fuckton of money for her transphobic agenda with hp merch should be reason enough not to buy her shit)#but generally...most fandoms do not have that much of an impact on real life. and so it should be ok to sometimes enjoy a thing #without constantly justifying my enjoyment to myself and/or to others. without constantly questioning it.#because i know that my actual political activism with irl impact goes in the right direction #and if you feel like your fandom experience defines your activism/is what your political views are being judged for #maybe you should find a second hobby; engage in actual activism if it makes you feel better.#because that will have a positive impact on society/the world; unlike apologising to like 47 people for uncritically enjoying something #(again. it depends. if a friend was really hurt by how [issue] was represented in a medium - I wouldn't gush about how much I loved it #or try to downplay it. maybe we won't make that medium part of our friendship then. and keep it in mind.#but i cannot keep my life 100% pure and unproblematic. that's impossible. and again. fandom is not how i shape the world. it shouldn't be.)#loquor #tdl #probably

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morethanonepage · 1 year

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i open tumblr

i see daniel craig's entire tackle

i continue scrolling

nature is healing

excuse you that is THEE definition of ~artistic nudity~, which is. sometimes allowed? i'm not up to date on tumblrs nakey rules, i just reblog things and hope for the best

#it literally IS artistic nudity fwiw #since it's from a movie about an artist 💅🏽#(i mean also bc it's not sexualized and representative of the character's ~vulnerability etc etc)#(i watched that movie AGES ago bc it was one of the better rated gay movies on netflix at the time)#(NOT sure i would recommend it it's very sad)#but again the real life was very sad so yknow

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dexaroth · 2 years

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trying to use that one method of solving a problem by thinking of it as if you were explaining it to someone else to sorta force a new perspective on it and going crazier and madder each iteration until im so devoid of any mental capacity i just stare blankly into the dark of my drawing tablet and die of spontaneous combustion and rising from the ashes like an integer overflow time and time again for as long as theres a fuel to change the variables

#maybe i wouldnt be so nitpicky if i just made a single base for my fursona and made its constant design changes a part of him #maybe i would be able to be happy with a base if i wasnt constantly changing my artstyle and inspirations driving me to get better #its all of this for what. whaqt made me a perfectionist. who even.#im like hmmm but this specific shape isnt very realistic to how an animal looks in real life #..i say as i design a creature that barely follows any biological rules at all #this fucking looming unconscious desire to want everything to look like whatever other things youre already familiar with #a rooted and cemented fear of change that i only feel safe from detaching when making a character that doesnt represent me #what if i did the same to myself. what if i changed my persona for every pimple that surfaced and every stretch mark i gained #would i be as frustrated as i am now or would i finally realize and incorporate the futility of such an idiotic mindset?#anyways thanks for coming to my ted talk. next week ill talk about my fears of failing college and reiterate on whatever i said in this pos #t but with different wording. till next time #dextxt

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stelashe · 1 month

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There's always something so alien and off putting in North Europeans movies. It's like watching a world that is quite similar to yours but different,off and sinister

#can't help but feeling often distressed. there are cultures that are very different from mine and are not very represented and ur like ok #or others that are just different. there are American/canadian/uk productions that are so ingrained in ur brain since childhood that #they're so familiar even in their extremes. and then there's northern europe movies...or shows ...and humour #maybe bc they're often indie and try hard and mOoDy idk my take is that there's this massive difference in the way children and youth are #treated and raised compared to here and how the coldness and detach is seen as prime and better example of good parenting #idk i always get this feeling of there's a body in the garage. there's blood under the persian carpet. mommy came back wrong lol #it's just the movies not real life i know only 1 (one) person from northern europe and she's finnish so she doesn't count

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sasquatch-turtleneck · 3 months

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because jason dohring doesn't use social media ever. jason doesn't know how to use twitter or even instagram. his twitter is handled by his agent

ah, true, still i find it strange, the account liking random stuff like that.

#like JD can be as inactive as he wants to be #i won't force him to be super active on social media but like #his twitter randomly likes concerning stuff i feel #and if it was his agent liking that post. maybe they should learn to be a bit better at handling the accounts they have access to #incase they like something very very very weird #because based on what i know about conservatives. they are all massive freaks #it all starts with being anti-whatever the current most unconventional thing is #whether it's poc or lgbtq+ people or disabled people #then they will start talking about how it's to save the kids but then they don't give a single shit about kids in actual danger #because the kids in Gaza? the kids in Congo? kids living in poverty? they don't care about them #but if it makes them look like heroes. they will pretend to care for an unborn child that won't have a good life if their would-be parents #were forced to have a kid. like you aren't gonna have a good life if your parents don't want kids. i can guarantee you that #but conservatives don't care. they just like knowing they're still privileged #soooo i might recheck JD's likes in a few days and if there's weird stuff #like pro-life bs or “trans women aren't real women” or “end wokeness. white people aren't represented anymore”#then i know the agent is a weird conservative fuckface #and if the agent likes weird stuff on Jason's account. it could look like Jason is a weird fuck who for example supports fascism #and if i was Jason. I wouldn't like people thinking that I'm some fascist because of something my agent liked #but that's just me

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unproduciblesmackdown · 8 months

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knock on wood but already had the thought about how the potential What If winstuk of ostensible post-7x03/WDE could just be....boisterous. effulgent. vibrant.

#and it could Not Be. we could have tuk be like i; specifically; hate you; specifically. bit of a damper esp. not assuming further material #but if there's the setup for Contrast Surprise in ''everyone hates winston & has been assaulting him or not moved to make sure he's not #assaulted all day'' bad time & he ends up Unleashed. perfect time to meet just out of frame like knock knock it's me your actual friennd...#anyways i have boundless thoughts; feelings abt WDE Impends that i won't try to expound & enumerate via thirty tags limits #representative is how atm the vibe is [mild] but earlier did have an adrenal response to secondhand info. which is also just a tuesday but #winston billions #winstuk #it could sure just be everyone lining up for a last chance at telling winston they wish he was dead & then forget he exists next ep #like what happens when he's been offscreen for a moment all these five seasons lol #and of course i've thought abt ''well it's not even off the table he litchreally dies offscreen lol lmao''#it's just like 4x11 time to lose forty followers overnight #causing mpc problems? maybe someone will kill you for real.#then his life will have served its highest purpose: upping the stakes for people who matter (rian going ''hope that doesnt happen to me'')#but this would be as likely as anyone following up on winston ever to even realize if he's alive or not. maybe if they Had to ask him smth #billions probably wouldn't be that mean but who even knows. do you want maximal drama out of the winston sendoff or not #like thanks for naming an episode after him and his dick energy i guess....could've just written him out offscreen entirely #but i also have the standards of ''yes i'm gonna be pissed if/when they write him out w/o treating him like another Person in universe''#and even if they do at all in some ways. i'll also be annoyed if they stick to the tradition of not letting taylor talk to him #i know someone official liked my livetweet about that backpat. you all had better do any damn thing. sigh. anyways #only Some expounding. the winstuk setup potential could also be cuntrageous as it'd be great if winston could be more generally

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months

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Tesla's Dieselgate

Elon Musk lies a lot. He lies about being a “utopian socialist.” He lies about being a “free speech absolutist.” He lies about which companies he founded:

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-cofounder-martin-eberhard-interview-history-elon-musk-ev-market-2023-2 He lies about being the “chief engineer” of those companies:

https://www.quora.com/Was-Elon-Musk-the-actual-engineer-behind-SpaceX-and-Tesla

He lies about really stupid stuff, like claiming that comsats that share the same spectrum will deliver steady broadband speeds as they add more users who each get a narrower slice of that spectrum:

https://www.eff.org/wp/case-fiber-home-today-why-fiber-superior-medium-21st-century-broadband

The fundamental laws of physics don’t care about this bullshit, but people do. The comsat lie convinced a bunch of people that pulling fiber to all our homes is literally impossible — as though the electrical and phone lines that come to our homes now were installed by an ancient, lost civilization. Pulling new cabling isn’t a mysterious art, like embalming pharaohs. We do it all the time. One of the poorest places in America installed universal fiber with a mule named “Ole Bub”:

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-one-traffic-light-town-with-some-of-the-fastest-internet-in-the-us

Previous tech barons had “reality distortion fields,” but Musk just blithely contradicts himself and pretends he isn’t doing so, like a budget Steve Jobs. There’s an entire site devoted to cataloging Musk’s public lies:

https://elonmusk.today/

But while Musk lacks the charm of earlier Silicon Valley grifters, he’s much better than they ever were at running a long con. For years, he’s been promising “full self driving…next year.”

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

He’s hasn’t delivered, but he keeps claiming he has, making Teslas some of the deadliest cars on the road:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/10/tesla-autopilot-crashes-elon-musk/

Tesla is a giant shell-game masquerading as a car company. The important thing about Tesla isn’t its cars, it’s Tesla’s business arrangement, the Tesla-Financial Complex:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/24/no-puedo-pagar-no-pagara/#Rat

Once you start unpacking Tesla’s balance sheets, you start to realize how much the company depends on government subsidies and tax-breaks, combined with selling carbon credits that make huge, planet-destroying SUVs possible, under the pretense that this is somehow good for the environment:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/14/for-sale-green-indulgences/#killer-analogy

But even with all those financial shenanigans, Tesla’s got an absurdly high valuation, soaring at times to 1600x its profitability:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/15/hoover-calling/#intangibles

That valuation represents a bet on Tesla’s ability to extract ever-higher rents from its customers. Take Tesla’s batteries: you pay for the battery when you buy your car, but you don’t own that battery. You have to rent the right to use its full capacity, with Tesla reserving the right to reduce how far you go on a charge based on your willingness to pay:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/09/10/teslas-demon-haunted-cars-in-irmas-path-get-a-temporary-battery-life-boost/

That’s just one of the many rent-a-features that Tesla drivers have to shell out for. You don’t own your car at all: when you sell it as a used vehicle, Tesla strips out these features you paid for and makes the next driver pay again, reducing the value of your used car and transfering it to Tesla’s shareholders:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21127243/tesla-model-s-autopilot-disabled-remotely-used-car-update

To maintain this rent-extraction racket, Tesla uses DRM that makes it a felony to alter your own car’s software without Tesla’s permission. This is the root of all autoenshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

This is technofeudalism. Whereas capitalists seek profits (income from selling things), feudalists seek rents (income from owning the things other people use). If Telsa were a capitalist enterprise, then entrepreneurs could enter the market and sell mods that let you unlock the functionality in your own car:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/11/1-in-3/#boost-50

But because Tesla is a feudal enterprise, capitalists must first secure permission from the fief, Elon Musk, who decides which companies are allowed to compete with him, and how.

Once a company owns the right to decide which software you can run, there’s no limit to the ways it can extract rent from you. Blocking you from changing your device’s software lets a company run overt scams on you. For example, they can block you from getting your car independently repaired with third-party parts.

But they can also screw you in sneaky ways. Once a device has DRM on it, Section 1201 of the DMCA makes it a felony to bypass that DRM, even for legitimate purposes. That means that your DRM-locked device can spy on you, and because no one is allowed to explore how that surveillance works, the manufacturer can be incredibly sloppy with all the personal info they gather:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/29/tesla-model-3-keeps-data-like-crash-videos-location-phone-contacts.html

All kinds of hidden anti-features can lurk in your DRM-locked car, protected from discovery, analysis and criticism by the illegality of bypassing the DRM. For example, Teslas have a hidden feature that lets them lock out their owners and summon a repo man to drive them away if you have a dispute about a late payment:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

DRM is a gun on the mantlepiece in Act I, and by Act III, it goes off, revealing some kind of ugly and often dangerous scam. Remember Dieselgate? Volkswagen created a line of demon-haunted cars: if they thought they were being scrutinized (by regulators measuring their emissions), they switched into a mode that traded performance for low emissions. But when they believed themselves to be unobserved, they reversed this, emitting deadly levels of NOX but delivering superior mileage.

The conversion of the VW diesel fleet into mobile gas-chambers wouldn’t have been possible without DRM. DRM adds a layer of serious criminal jeopardy to anyone attempting to reverse-engineer and study any device, from a phone to a car. DRM let Apple claim to be a champion of its users’ privacy even as it spied on them from asshole to appetite:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Now, Tesla is having its own Dieselgate scandal. A stunning investigation by Steve Stecklow and Norihiko Shirouzu for Reuters reveals how Tesla was able to create its own demon-haunted car, which systematically deceived drivers about its driving range, and the increasingly desperate measures the company turned to as customers discovered the ruse:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

The root of the deception is very simple: Tesla mis-sells its cars by falsely claiming ranges that those cars can’t attain. Every person who ever bought a Tesla was defrauded.

But this fraud would be easy to detect. If you bought a Tesla rated for 353 miles on a charge, but the dashboard range predictor told you that your fully charged car could only go 150 miles, you’d immediately figure something was up. So your Telsa tells another lie: the range predictor tells you that you can go 353 miles.

But again, if the car continued to tell you it has 203 miles of range when it was about to run out of charge, you’d figure something was up pretty quick — like, the first time your car ran out of battery while the dashboard cheerily informed you that you had 203 miles of range left.

So Teslas tell a third lie: when the battery charge reached about 50%, the fake range is replaced with the real one. That way, drivers aren’t getting mass-stranded by the roadside, and the scam can continue.

But there’s a new problem: drivers whose cars are rated for 353 miles but can’t go anything like that far on a full charge naturally assume that something is wrong with their cars, so they start calling Tesla service and asking to have the car checked over.

This creates a problem for Tesla: those service calls can cost the company $1,000, and of course, there’s nothing wrong with the car. It’s performing exactly as designed. So Tesla created its boldest fraud yet: a boiler-room full of anti-salespeople charged with convincing people that their cars weren’t broken.

This new unit — the “diversion team” — was headquartered in a Nevada satellite office, which was equipped with a metal xylophone that would be rung in triumph every time a Tesla owner was successfully conned into thinking that their car wasn’t defrauding them.

When a Tesla owner called this boiler room, the diverter would run remote diagnostics on their car, then pronounce it fine, and chide the driver for having energy-hungry driving habits (shades of Steve Jobs’s “You’re holding it wrong”):

https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/

The drivers who called the Diversion Team weren’t just lied to, they were also punished. The Tesla app was silently altered so that anyone who filed a complaint about their car’s range was no longer able to book a service appointment for any reason. If their car malfunctioned, they’d have to request a callback, which could take several days.

Meanwhile, the diverters on the diversion team were instructed not to inform drivers if the remote diagnostics they performed detected any other defects in the cars.

The diversion team had a 750 complaint/week quota: to juke this stat, diverters would close the case for any driver who failed to answer the phone when they were eventually called back. The center received 2,000+ calls every week. Diverters were ordered to keep calls to five minutes or less.

Eventually, diverters were ordered to cease performing any remote diagnostics on drivers’ cars: a source told Reuters that “Thousands of customers were told there is nothing wrong with their car” without any diagnostics being performed.

Predicting EV range is an inexact science as many factors can affect battery life, notably whether a journey is uphill or downhill. Every EV automaker has to come up with a figure that represents some kind of best guess under a mix of conditions. But while other manufacturers err on the side of caution, Tesla has the most inaccurate mileage estimates in the industry, double the industry average.

Other countries’ regulators have taken note. In Korea, Tesla was fined millions and Elon Musk was personally required to state that he had deceived Tesla buyers. The Korean regulator found that the true range of Teslas under normal winter conditions was less than half of the claimed range.

Now, many companies have been run by malignant narcissists who lied compulsively — think of Thomas Edison, archnemesis of Nikola Tesla himself. The difference here isn’t merely that Musk is a deeply unfit monster of a human being — but rather, that DRM allows him to defraud his customers behind a state-enforced opaque veil. The digital computers at the heart of a Tesla aren’t just demons haunting the car, changing its performance based on whether it believes it is being observed — they also allow Musk to invoke the power of the US government to felonize anyone who tries to peer into the black box where he commits his frauds.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

This Sunday (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.

Image ID [A scene out of an 11th century tome on demon-summoning called 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli me tangere.' It depicts a demon tormenting two unlucky would-be demon-summoners who have dug up a grave in a graveyard. One summoner is held aloft by his hair, screaming; the other screams from inside the grave he is digging up. The scene has been altered to remove the demon's prominent, urinating penis, to add in a Tesla supercharger, and a red Tesla Model S nosing into the scene.]

Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Model_S_Indoors.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

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somehowmags · 9 months

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i’ve seen a lot of posts talking about nimona’s queer messages which is great! but ive not seen as many posts talking analyzing how both ballister and ambrosius were changed to be asian, which is a shame because i genuinely think its one of the most important parts of the film! a huge part of it is a deconstruction of the model minority myth and respectability politics, both of which are big issues in the asian american community. both of them represent each side of the spectrum, with ambrosius expected to be superhuman with very little support and ballister being seen as less than human, no matter how hard he tries- a monster.

ambrosius (who is now east asian, like his voice actor eugene lee yang, who is korean with chinese and japanese ancestry), despite being in a seemingly powerful position as head of the knights and a descendant of gloreth, he isn’t really given the kind of support that this position needs- he’s constantly undermined and belittled by todd, the face of the other knights, and when asked about his emotional state by the director, represses his emotions rather than talk to her about his true feelings. this is very similar to how asian american students in schools aren’t given the support they need academically by teachers and administration, as the model minority myth leads to them being perceived as more intelligent and competent than their fellow students and therefore not needing support. he’s also held to a higher standard than any of the other knights, being immediately placed into a position of power despite just being knighted, again a reflection of the model minority myth, since asian americans are held to higher standards unfairly. despite being technically better off than ballister, he has no support, no friends, no way to seek help for his problems, and, just like ballister, is immediately thrown away the moment the director thinks he’s served his use.

ballister is now pakistani, like his voice actor riz ahmed (no, not like pedro pascal. where did this come from lol), and i’d go as far as to say that he is also, if not explicitly muslim, heavily muslim coded as well. he’s framed as a terrorist by the white, christian institution, and from then on, it doesn’t matter how good he tries to be- everyone else sees him as a monster. he’s also from a lower socioeconomic class than ambrosius and the rest of the knights- while this is initially used to frame him as a success story, after he’s framed, it’s used to cast suspicion on him. almost immediately he’s othered, with posters casting him as a foreign invader sent to destabilize the city, much in the same way that muslim immigrants are seen in real life. even when he tries to be peaceful and good, it’s always twisted so that he’s the monster of the story. while ambrosius is held to too high of a standard, ballister will never be enough for the institution to accept.

which is why both of their arcs culminate in them breaking out of the system, learning to accept what they’d been taught was monstrous, and leaving behind respectability. it’s a genuinely great commentary, and i can definitely see why riz ahmed and eugene lee yang were chosen for this, as they’ve both done activist work for their communities.

#nimona #chatters #another analysis post i made at two am and then put in my drafts and forgot about LMAO #anyways i forgot to actually write a conclusion but shut up this isn't school i don't have to conclude SHIT #ballister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin

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kazoo-world · 7 days

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okay. i debated not posting this because I was worried I’d get death threats (that says a lot doesn’t it) but it needs to be said, because its upsetting me.

a woman who publicly says she feels very sane and has “never been to therapy” and who breaks up with her boyfriend in part because he can’t just “”get over”” his depression to love her the way she wants/needs does not.

I repeat, does not.

get to use the imagery she did in her fortnight video.

I’ve been seeing gifsets and screenshots all day of her chained to a bed but ~aesthetic~ and being fed a pill after a cheeky side eye and strapped to a glamourfied ECT machine and no one has said anything about it so I will. those images are genuinely triggering for me.

people have been restrained, forcefed pills, and given electroconvulsive therapy or subjected to the electric chair for severe mental illness against their will. these are not fun props anyone gets to throw around to express that they feel depressed or in a “manic phase” or like they were “raised in an asylum.”

she doesn’t know how a real asylum fried my grandmother’s brain or real cops restrained me because I was psychotic and manic. she doesn’t know what it feels like to be dehumanised that way.

do better. demand she do better, too.

edit: I say that this content is triggering to say that it causes real harm. I do still have a responsibility to myself to curate an internet experience for myself. this does not negate her responsibility to avoid replicating harmful tropes in art which is deeply influential. she does not get to co-opt institutionalization or psychiatric violence as a romanticized aesthetic or as a metaphor because real people like myself have suffered greatly under the things she is representing as glamorous or cool. institutionalization silences and violates mentally ill people in a way that marginalizes them, and that experience should be treated with sensitivity and care rather than being commodified to reduce stigma. if she had experienced these things, I might feel differently, but other ableist content on the record and her statements on her life and art indicate otherwise. she is a woman with immense privilege and power and should not be using that privilege and power to punch down on mental illness.

edit 2: I turned off reblogs for my mental health, but I want you all to know I have seen your criticism. I will not edit the post but I do respect that she has had mental health struggles since that outdated quote. That is my mistake, I own that. My apologies.

However, mental health struggles =/ experience with psychiatric violence. Experiences of mental illness are heterogenous. Aestheticizing, romanticizing, and glamourizing mental hospitals is straight up gross regardless of your experience with mental illness. It’s tasteless and offensive.

I do understand metaphors. I think that her calling her life an asylum as a metaphor is in poor taste. I think her representing her relationship struggles with the imagery of a mental institution is insensitive given the impacts that real asylums and mental hospitals have had on my life and the lives of many others like me, so I had to say something about it.

It’s ableist to assume that critics of your fav “can’t read”, “don’t understand a metaphor” or “don’t have brains” when they clearly demonstrate that they are thinking critically. Do better.

#anti taylor swift #taylor swift #ttpd #the tortured poets department #taylor swift ttpd

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