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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   876 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.

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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.

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.

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