site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1087 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 30, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Cross-posted from /r/rational:

Gabital - Fantasy Capitalism 101

Gabital tells the story of Gabi, a goblin wheelwright who loves cupcakes. One day, she gets tired of working for Chief, and decides that she wants to work for herself. But, as she is going to find out, there is a lot more to running a business than she first thought...

I came across this webcomic randomly while pursuing my interest in cute goblin girls. I expected to hate it, since it's obviously written from a Marxist perspective (labor theory of value, bosses as parasites, etc.), but to my surprise, I was hooked.

The art is pretty (not gorgeous like Dresden Codak or Seed, but certainly better than Transdimensional Brain Chip or The Order of the Stick), the protagonist is likable (Gabi is intelligent, hard-working, perseverant, and truly believes in her ideals of helping the laborers rather than becoming another Chief), and the details of how she operates the new enterprise (and the obstacles she faces in the way) are thorough, coherent, and fascinating.

I was impressed when the artist included an anecdote of incentive structures encouraging employees to do unproductive things (paying per cupcake leading the orc guy to try making three times as many at once, ruining the batch) and I fell in love when I saw the Sankey diagrams describing the relationship between revenue, expenses, and profits (thought I could not help but wonder how many of the goblins came in a fluffer).

On the other hand, the workers seem mighty ready to subsidize the non-profitable parts of the business, such as filing tax paperwork; that does not square up with what I know of co-ops.

It could well be that the communist approach to economics ruins the comic later, but for now I highly recommend it.

The shop owner's a little too overtly villainous -- you do get real-world management shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly, yet that's almost all this guy does -- but having the other gobs be tempted by capitalism not because of lingering evil but because it seems like a reasonable approach helps temper it, as does other goblins only being in the coop for the minimum. There's more that could be explored, and it's hard to tell where the gaps are left undone for future comic material, which because the author isn't aware of them (or wouldn't run into them, just as Americans don't have to care about VAT-likes), and which because the author doesn't have a good grip or counter on them.

Still, nice to see someone trying to steelman their own positions, especially given the tendency of Marxists to be pretty shallow about it. I'd rather read well-executed works, even and maybe especially where I disagree.

How do you even start to develop an interest in sexualized goblins?

I'm not trying to yuck your yum, but genuinely curious.

As Eetan says, WoW popularized the specific shape of goblins as short green humans with a tendency toward capitalism and tinkering. There's a few other examples of hot goblins before then, but Blizzard very much standardized a form.

Some of it's just that spending enough time with an avatar in these sort of games makes it hard to avoid empathizing with that avatar, in some way. But while that worked out for the Draenai (and Charr and Asura from GW2, and whatever's hot in Overwatch), it's not like the WoW gnomes or dwarves took off, and even Tauren/whatever-the-fox-people are pretty marginal.

In terms of how and why that hits, it's similar to most other light forms of monsterfuckery, despite how much of an asterisk as it seems like 'monster' needs here. People like a characteristic. They know, and often don't like, the actual form of people who heavily focus around that characteristic. Doesn't matter what it is, doesn't matter whether that characteristic actually attracts bad things or if it's just a side effect from pulling around the tail edges of a bell curve.

That's most obvious with kink, and why a lot of monsters like dryders or the entire ouvre of Interspecies Reviewers. Exhibitionists aren't just people who like being seen naked, bondage tops don't just like tying people up (and subs don't just like getting tied up), every kink has a stereotype and that stereotype's usually not wrong. But it also applies to hobbies, habits, modes of social interaction, yada yada. People around them will respond in kind.

A monster can be normal, whatever they do.

Why would male MMO players want a normal (... if busty) woman who happens to be a nerd, rather than a nerd that happens to be a woman?

((Heavier forms of monsterfuckery tend to get into specific sensations or physical actions that aren't possible or safe with humans. Goblins have a little bit of that with the size difference, but afaict it's usually not a theme.))

Cute and sexy goblins, instead of disgusting green vermin? It starts with World of Warcraft.

Erotic authors and artists have been depicting """goblins""" as women who happen to be very short and have green skin for many years. It doesn't even count as a fetish at this point.

Russian communists have grown clever and insidious, using promises of goblin boobies to convert and indoctrinate undersexed Westerners.

using promises of goblin boobies

And I was just last week debating with myself if Yuri fiction was a step too far. Truly, I feel like practically a saint!

Also what is it with all the dysfunctional autist BS in web fiction? So. Much. Dysfunctional. Autism. You’d think getting through an engineering degree and working 20 years in the field would have prepared me, but no, even the nerdiest engineers seem like the most well adjusted normies compared to what seems to be the norm in web fiction circles.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats