Posts made by GreenFlashlight

@rightmeow I feel that the term "clique" is always externally applied. That is, no one who is inside a clique perceives themselves as part of one, and at least a couple of them probably hate another member's guts despite both of them agreeing on whatever topic they're now declared to be in a clique about. As such, it is hard for me to trust the opinion of someone who is not a part of the group they are trying to define by aspersion, just like how I can't trust conservative pundits about what it means to be "woke." I think that kind of outcome-determinative label ("I feel excluded, so your intention must have been to exclude me") can only ever be accidentally accurate.

@saosmash said in Something Completely Different:

I think you need to look into the definition of your terms. For example, dictionary citations:

Bully (verb form): "seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable)."

You can't bully someone who is in authority over you.

I'm glad you brought this up, because it has slightly changed my stance on the matter by reminding me of a principle I am trying to live by despite it not coming naturally to me: that understanding isn't achieved by relying on dictionary definitions, but rather by trying to empathize with what motivates the other person to say something at all.

Is it possible to bully someone who has absolute, incontestable authority over you? I don't think it is.

Is it possible for someone who has absolute, incontestable authority over you to feel bullied by you because what you have said or done hurts them regardless of their absolute, incontestable authority over you? Yes. And in that case, I don't think quibbling over definitions is more helpful than addressing the feeling of hurt that exist on both sides.

But that's the whole problem here, isn't it? I've no idea how any of our overlords are currently feeling because they won't talk about it, so any emotion I assign to them is pure projection. Likewise, I can't talk to them about my feelings because I can't trust that if I do, it won't be declared a violation of the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it. I am more than half convinced that this is my final post on this forum because it will provoke the mods to feel defensive, which they will decide means my intent is to attack and is therefore a bannable offense. Is that assumption empathy on my part or projection? Hell if I know.

I don't know. I thought I had a point when I started writing this post, maybe something about how it would be really helpful if everyone could set aside their defensiveness to just talk to one another like people who actually want the best outcome, but like Prototart said, I'm not sure that matters any more. The most community participation in this site in the last week is people announcing they will no longer be participating in the community, and I can't even tell if pointing that out is a violation of the code of conduct because the code has been clarified until clarity is impossible.

So maybe this is the post I get banned for. If so, I'm not sure there's much left for me to mourn. I'll always be grateful to this site and this community for the support I found when I needed it most, and I'll regret everyone I hurt with my careless anger, but it doesn't seem like anyone I need to thank or apologize to is around to hear it anyway.

That's not a bad attempt to salvage a point from a pointless ramble, I guess. Yeah, I can be satisfied if it ends there.

@arkandel Yeah, if it wasn't clear, I'm mocking the kind of knob who thinks racial purity is important in a TV show about imaginary elves and wizards.

@misadventure It's ADORABLE.

@arkandel but it has people who arent white and everyone knows thats not how middle earth was

@kk said in The Work Thread:

They gave me a massive backdated raise and promised to make safety related changes.

I'm sure this is just my paranoia speaking, but they didn't ask you to sign anything, did they?

@alzie I believe it is forbidden to currently explain what happened here. Suffice to say a lot of people got justifiably angry at one another, and let that justifiable anger lead to some less justifiable behaviors. I don't want to sound disingenuous by pretending I think everyone involved is equally culpable or that I don't have a side, but even so, I think it is fair to say no person involved (myself included) did anything that drenched themself in glory.

@runescryer Appreciated. I got that vibe from the YouTube thumbnails I've seen of people reacting to the fifth episode, but it's still good to have it confirmed and a warning given.

@runescryer I'm planning on binging it this weekend. I saw the first episode and I felt attacked by it in the best possible way when they introduce Stephen with his ankle bracelet and sand and tape. It was at once comforting and a wake-up call to see someone with obvious mental health issues who's been so unwell for so long it doesn't even occur to him that this isn't normal; that there's some shit in his life he needs to fix. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.

@derp Firefox and whatever the current version of Windows is.

I can't replicate it myself. It's only happened three, maybe four times since the switchover.

@derp said in Forum wonk:

As in, it's showing the preview box of that link like if you hover over one? Even when you aren't hovered over it?

Yeah. It doesn't happen often, and sometimes mousing over the link will make the preview go away. Other times I have to F5 to make it go away.

Sometimes when Solstice has posted in a thread, the page is covered by a preview of the anime thread linked in their sig. Sometimes I can make it go away, sometimes I can't.

@kk Don't make me steal Ganymede's She-Ra gif because I will do it.

@killer-klown said in Races in fantasy settings:

On the flip side, I'll just paraphrase a line from the Humanis Policlub contact in Shadowrun: 'Who cares about that tan looking guy standing next to you, when that thing over there has hands the size of my head?!'

I'm not sure how I feel about that quote. It seems to imply that there's a rationality to racism and whom we choose to ostracize/oppress, such that we'll just forget generations of hate against one minority when a new one pops up rather than making room to hate them both. In my experience, that is not how it works; especially in the kind of capitalist hellscape cyberpunk is built on.

On the other hand, I can play a troll wizard asking my pet crocodile ghost to please hack the web for me, so maybe I should be okay with accepting "rational racism" as just part of the escapist fantasy.

I think racism in fantasy gaming is unavoidable, and I can't talk about why without explaining my perspective.

I'm American. In my culture, racism isn't just the presence of racial stereotypes on others; it's also the lack of racial stereotypes on the majority. For example, if a black person is angry, then that is because they are black and all black people are angry; but if a white person is angry, then that is an individual character trait which has no relationship to their race. A rich Jewish person is rich because of their Jewishness while a rich WASP is rich because of skill and bootstrapping; an Asian honor student is smart because of their race, while a white honor student is smart because of individual merit.

That lack of racialization applied to the majority is a part of racism that I think is invisible to most members of the majority, and I think that invisibility makes it very difficult to confront. To use D&D as an example, it's not just racist that elves have a specific set of racial traits applied to them, it's also racist in a supremacist way that humans--the majority race, the ones free of racialization--have completely customizable traits to pick from. Elves can only ever be good at what elves do, but humans can be just as good as elves at what they do, or what dwarves do, or what orcs do, or or or.

The reason I think racism is unavoidable in RPGs is because when you declare a race to be not human, you have to define what separates them from humanity; and if you're a good game designer, that definition has to include mechanical benefits that support the definition you create. The problem is that this same standard is never applied to humanity. Human characters are never defined: there is nothing a human can't be, can't do, can't have experienced. Humans are individuals, who have varied and individual experiences. Other races, by the nature of not being human, are a collective who are incapable of existing outside of that definition of not-human.

As you're reading this, perhaps you're thinking to yourself that I'm overlooking an obvious possibility here: that it is absolutely possible for writers to apply the same level of racialization to humans as they do to non-human races, to define what humans can be and therefore what humans cannot be. And yeah, sure, that's technically possible, but I've never seen anyone do it yet. Maybe I'm just reading the wrong RPGs.

@ganymede Yeah, I threw that line in to emphasize my irritation at the request rather than because I have any knowledge that it is factually accurate. My point is, it's not okay to ask someone to impose consequences unless they have the authority to enforce the consequences to be imposed; and on a realpolitik level, it's not okay to ask a fellow employee to out herself as a snitch* so she'll absorb all the negative response to policy being enforced.

*no offense intended by this term: I don't usually support snitching, but it is justified in order to protect children

@silverfox said in The Work Thread:

"are you sure you wouldn't be better to talk since you know the kids and are more experienced."

Yes hi I was wondering if you would like to do my job for me please and be the bad guy but without the commensurate training and pay that go with my duties, that would be very convenient for me

@misadventure Low-end. They look like the tiny winter gloves I wore in grade school, which amuses me. They're good enough for what I do, though it always amazes me how quickly they turn orange with carrot juice.

@misadventure I recently bought come cut-resistant kitchen gloves. They haven't saved my life but I know they've saved me some scars.

I remember about ten years ago, I was looking into joining a Legend of the Five Rings MUSH. Wasn't actually a MUSH--I think it was on some kind of chat program?--but it seemed to function enough like a MUSH that I didn't mind calling it that. I built a courtier and was chatting with some people in a pre-launch soft RP session, when I noticed that I was the only courtier. Literally everyone else was a bushi or a shugenja.

I asked why that was, and I was told straight to my face with refreshing honesty, "Because bushi and shugenja can roleplay talking, but courtiers can't roleplay fighting."