Skulldrinker
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User ID: 1874
Skulldrinker
4d ago
I may read too much sci-fi, then, because I was all-in on the jargon.
The audiobook has good delivery with distinct voices for all the characters; Spindel and Cunningham talk quite differently while both being stemlords.
Skulldrinker
4d ago
I tried reading Alien Clay. Didn't quite finish it; repetitive prose and ideas, some degree of oppression porn, . Felt like Avatar written by an ecologist who is also a labor-of-my-body lets-have-a-commitee-meeting marxist rather than a blue cat native-american fetishist who likes submarines. The creatures were initially interesting, but then the planet becomes an anonymous blob of empathy breaking through the false consciousness, solving the coordination problem, and overthrowing the bootlickers. I think my personal grudges prevented me from enjoying it. TL;DR "What if [bad thing: hiveminds] is actually good?"
I liked Blindsight much more.
Skulldrinker
4d ago
All my examples come from IRL interactions in Chicago. It happens with randos, it happens with people I meet socially.
Three separate people said "ewww, there's a lot of white people around here" while wandering around the north side with me in 2020. Way back when I brushed it off, and went on to regret associating with them after how they behaved later.
Skulldrinker
4d ago
That guy who got shot in Kenosha was initially a Local community leader who saw some sort of argument happening in his community while driving and stopped to assist in restoring harmony to his community, then cops tried to assassinate him.
People in cities are still viciously tribal, though. Tons of them can't get through a casual conversation without mentioning how much they hate Trump, ICE, tech bros, cops, billionaires, conservatives, white people (while being white), rich people, straightness (while being straight), or men, and give you weird looks if you don't join in. And that's if you can even get them to talk to you.
My friend group here, despite being very adjacent to the LGBT community, has no actual LGBT people in it. (At most, It has the occasional straight chick who talks about Queerness a lot). And this isn't because we keep the LGBTs out, it's because none of us are "cool" enough for them; we dont speak in reddit-isms, too much of our conversation isn't about politics, and when one of them does wander in, we dont relentlessly praise their LGBTness like I presume other straight people do, we keep playing D&D. Oh, and the system we use doesn't have Tieflings in it, that's a big barrier. This suits me just fine.
Despite being full of minorities and anti-racists, the neighborhoods are still racially sorted somehow. It can't be the fault of conservatives, since there's none of them here.
Tribalism is alive and well in cities. By comparison, people outside of cities don't quake in performative fear when someone they don't know exists in their general vicinity, they don't constantly screech about all the things they hate, and what LGBT and People of Color that do exist there seem far more willing to socialize with non-queer/non-of-color people without making the entire interaction about queerness or of-color-ness.
Also, HP did describe the Elder Things as Men of a different age, they were ultimately people and more a subject of awe and fascination than horror. He arguably hated them way less than black people.
It's not even Red America being shit on, it's White People in general or Men in general. Sometimes they complete the trifecta and complain about Straight people. Since I'm the person they're talking to, I honestly can't tell if they're telegraphing that I should go away, or they just think this is how people interact.
Regardless of who the target is, it's still a fucking unhealthy and unbecoming amount of open vitriol for the people who claim they're all about Empathy/Niceness/Inclusivity.
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