Best posts made by Kestrel

I have more oh gosh.

Season your food. Herbs and spices like oregano and cinnamon don't just make food taste better; they're incredibly rich in polyphenols, antioxidants, and all manner of nutrients that promote longevity. They cost you almost nothing in terms of calories and in dried form pack a punch, are easy to store and won't break your bank. If you have a little extra dosh, you can also freeze fresh herbs in an ice-cube tray with a bit of oil or water, then just pop it into recipes for quick prep.

Frozen food gets a bad rap for no reason; it isn't worse than fresh food. Produce frozen in-season will not only taste better than fresh produce bought off-season, but may preserve nutritional value from when it's ripe better than fresh produce slowly losing its shine during transport, the time it's sat in the supermarket and the time it's sat in your fridge.

In a similar vein, some nutrients become more bioavailable when cooked, so don't feel like vegetables don't count unless you're eating them fresh & raw in a salad. It's OK to chop, soupify, stew and season them. In some cases it's even better.

@Pandora said in Separating Art From Artist:

@Tinuviel said in Separating Art From Artist:

@Pandora said in Separating Art From Artist:

@Tinuviel said in Separating Art From Artist:

@Pandora said in Separating Art From Artist:

@GreenFlashlight said in Separating Art From Artist:

I really hope I'm misinterpreting you here

You are, and that's okay. People who understand the words I typed get it.

Oh, no, in that example you're just being stupid. I agree with the general idea that people shouldn't seek to ban or otherwise prohibit works, but the quote you offered doesn't attempt to do that.

Your opinion is noted.

There's a difference between "It's not a name I intend to pass on to future generations" and "Nobody should ever at all ever mention this person again ever." The former is fine, if stupid. The latter is bad.

Censorship begins with someone's personal views on a work or body of works. Like I said though, your opinion is noted. We're not in the Hog Pit, I'm not going to derail the conversation getting into why arguing with someone calling everyone's opinions stupid is not a great use of my time.

I happen to think Margaret Atwood is an overrated writer, and I like the show adaptation better than the literary original version of the Handmaid's Tale. I share her political views, I just find her prose and plot unengaging.

Do you think this personal opinion is cause for concern that I might want to censor her?

I also think Twilight and EL James are overrated writers, for entirely different reasons. I think their works are misogynistic.

I didn't like the new Ghostbusters, not because it was feminist, but because it was a bad film.

I'm not trying to censor any of these things. I don't enjoy them, each for entirely different reasons. Some out of disgust, some out of boredom, some because I have a different sense of humour.

Sounds to me like the one trying to censor people is you. No one's allowed to have opinions if those opinions are political?

OK, Boomer.

@Staricide said in Gap between RP fantasy and RP reality:

For me, I think it's usually the conversations I'll have. I always imagine having deep and meaningful conversations where I explore my character's philosophies and morality and personality in relation to other characters, or just ones that are witty and fun.

In reality, it seems like most people are afraid to have any kind of conversation that might make their character look foolish/bad and so you end up with a lot of just, state things that have happened, talk about stuff they know, brag about things they did/have, or complain about other characters. Which are all things I find it so hard to get interested in.

I mean, this is a big one. But it's an issue I also have with conversations IRL. The second someone mentions the weather I tend to just switch off. Most people IRL don't want to talk about religion or politics, and most people IG don't want to talk about anything too deep that involves having their character pick an actual side, have an actual stance or opinion, especially if that could risk alienating their character from others who choose differently. It's a shame but I don't know if this is symptomatic of roleplaying so much as just normal socialisation.

I think one of the ways to solve this on games is to make peace with the idea that people need to have different opinions. It's actually perfectly possible to have an interesting discussion involving tactics and strategy on a hot-button issue where both characters agree; on the Savage Skies for instance everyone's on the side opposing fascism, but I'd love to get into more IC discussions on why exactly we oppose fascism and how we're going to tackle it. Since everyone's on the same side, there's very low risk of fallout. (Note: not a criticism of Savage Skies, I've only just started playing and been in two scenes so far; I'm sure more will occur!)

The other thing I fantasise about doing/having on MU* where reality tends to disappoint is character development.

I always try to create characters who have some kind of obstacle they need to overcome from the outset, and I envision multiple paths they could eventually head down once they do. For example let's say I have a magically potent character who can't control her powers; will she be encouraged to give into her ability for violence? Will she find a way to give up those powers entirely? Will she actually learn to control and manage them responsibly? So many options. But I end up having to do the hard work myself because it's rare that any other player is going to care enough to engage with this character, find out what makes them tick and how to unravel or push that forward. I'm always incredibly grateful when I meet a player who does genuinely seem to take an interest and want to be that foil for me.

Another thing is exposing background secrets. I like building puzzles for others to solve. For about a year, though on-and-off, I played a private investigator who had the reputation of having murdered his own wife, who didn't have a clear memory of what had happened and was obsessed with the one case he couldn't solve: potentially his own crime. A few people came close but no one ever did actually figure out the whole truth and I tend to be a bit sad when I set up all these layers of exposition that never come to light.

Maybe this all sounds pretty selfish that I'm just fixated on ways for people to help or take an interest in my character, but I think I'm pretty good at engaging and rewarding other people for the effort they've gone through to design and layer their own characters. I like puzzles: both setting them up and solving other people's. On MUSH I often resign to putting the entire backstory out there for anyone to read if they want to, and leave just a smidge of motive to show don't tell. On other text-based RPGs I prefer and appreciate very noir-style spy-fi games that have lots of tools for espionage, investigation, digging up and exposing other people's secrets. Which is probably why I tend to play spies, assassins, hackers and rogues.

@Pandora said in Separating Art From Artist:

I'm not going to divorce your empathy-seeking sentiments here from the fact that you practice Cancel Culture and would happily see authors that you politically disagree with censored if anyone could get away with it. You're either being facetious, disingenuous, or dishonest here, and I'm not for it. Unlike @Tinuviel, I don't find your opinions stupid, I find them disagreeable and yet alarmingly popular.

I'm being none of these things, and don't practice cancel culture, you're using hyperbole and/or preconceptions about me or people you think are like me to get across your point. I don't think convincing you of my intent would be a productive use of my time, so let's move on.

I agree with everything @mietze said. I think whitewashing (or biaswashing, to borrow a term) can take on many forms. There's a difference between simply celebrating a racist work of art "on its own merit" and studying it in the proper context.

I've never watched Birth of a Nation, but I wouldn't personally be opposed to it. I also once told someone (to the raise of an eyebrow) that I wanted to read Mein Kampf. The difference is I'd be doing this from the perspective of someone wanting to understand the roots of racism in our culture without absolving or worse, celebrating it. This is pretty different from disseminating problematic media, especially to minors, simply as a normal aspect of our culture to be enjoyed.

If you were to visit my home today, you'd find Karl Marx, Petyr Kropotkin, Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman all sitting together on the same bookshelf. Different context, I also have Sigmund Freud, and honestly fuck that guy. I do not in any way hold these authors each to the same regard, but I am certainly glad I read them all.

@L-B-Heuschkel said in Well, this sums up why I RP:

We roleplay for the entertainz, after all -- not to meet critical acclaim. [...] Mush poses don't have the structural support to survive a meeting with a literary editor. [...] The only kind of judgement that's really fair to pass on mush prose is whether it was entertaining to write and to read, which is a very personal thing. I monitor some characters' scenes like a hawk because they do really interesting stuff; their prose may not pass the Hemingway test but hot damn, they can tell a story.

I mean.

Do you not ever have writing crushes on MU*? Golly, I do.

I'll be in a scene and suddenly some rando will drop this three paragraph beauty that isn't just engaging and enjoyable to read but pretty. The flow! The verbage! They used one of my favourite words: quagmire! Egads, I'm in love.

I 100% will fall for players who know how to prose. And I 100% do try to live up to my own standards, even if I know I can't be perfect.

I am always trying to show off and flex.

Instead of arguing this nonsense I'm just going to drop my problematic fave Sam Harris on the table because he adequately explains how I feel about this topic. Or you could read his book.

But my short answer is: fuck no, religious sensibilities don't entitle you to mutilate a baby's genitals. 'God/tradition made me do it' is in no way a valid argument stacked up against a mountain of evidence. And believe me, coming from a Jewish family, I have had this argument to the death.

& @Ghost: I 100% do not separate art from artist in the context of paedophilia. And I have been pretty vocal about it.

@L-B-Heuschkel said in Gap between RP fantasy and RP reality:

The character I primarily play at this time brokers information; he'll listen to you whether he personally finds you interesting or not because there is no way to tell whether you'll suddenly mention something that he does want to know about, or say something that may prove useful a month from now. This gives me an excuse to go anywhere and insert myself into any constellation of social class, occupation, and species -- just curious, happened to walk past, paying close attention while pretending to be just the next guy at the bar counter.

I don't think we play on the same games, but I would 100% want to meet this character. And then find some way to blackmail him for all the information he's gathered, because this seems like the perfect character to have some kind of mindfuckery with.

I eventually got tired of my private investigator, but he had a fascinating relationship with a sociopathic psychologist who ICly used her job as a way to get under people's skin and psychologically torture them, but OOCly it was a really engaging and fun way to encourage other characters to reveal themselves. She had this to say about how our dynamic started out:

I wanted that scene, just, 'She walked into my office on a rainy Tuesday and I knew she was trouble.' I figured any dude who makes a detective office does so waiting for that to happen.

Tying into that other thread, people who are here for the story are out there, you just need to find them.

@Auspice said in Separating Art From Artist:

But.
He's an example of 'cancel culture' actively hurting someone. Like I said: I've seen people be pissy about people still liking his works, refusing to reject him, etc.

Believe me or don't, but like I said to @Pandora up there, I don't practice cancel culture.

I do believe in having candid and productive conversations about it, though, and that there's value in acknowledging that pop culture is more than just face-value.

Sometimes, based on my opinions on a creator, I might not want to engage with their work anymore, which is a choice I think I'm entitled to make, just as everyone is entitled to make for themselves. I won't watch Tarantino movies anymore but I don't fault anyone else who does. They were really, really good. I just literally can't, because it gives me a visceral sense of unease which detracts from my ability to kick back and enjoy them. They're supposed to be cathartic, and at least for me, they're not anymore.

I think "cancel culture", on both sides, is much ado about nothing. (Heh for the hardcore Whedon fans out there.)

We can accept something is imperfect and criticise it without demanding the creator's head on a platter.

But also, the people actually doing that? Tiny tiny tiny minority of people on Twitter. And where anonymity is concerned, I'm not all that trusting these days of faceless mobs on the internet who could just as easily be trolls and bots.

Powerful white men aren't having their careers ended because a few woke snowflakes on Twitter feel comfortable expressing their opinions even in the most visceral ways.

Dave Chapelle's hilariously offensive show (allegedly; I haven't watched it) which brazenly stood up to PC culture? Bitch plz. There were way more articles harping on about how ballsy he was for mad owning the libs and how people are tired of being told what they can like than anyone actually complaining about it or demanding he be "cancelled".

So on both sides, maybe we should cool our jets. Nuance isn't a bad thing.

@Rinel said in Well, this sums up why I RP:

The only "cancelling" I can think of recently is people being pissed off at Rowling, and that's not because of anything in her novels. It's because she's a shitty fucking TERF.

Sometimes cancelling isn't even about trying to virtue signal or whatever hip young lingo the edgy kids are throwing around these days.

I personally can't enjoy Harry Potter references or Quentin Tarantino movies anymore the way I used to since learning certain things about the creators. It just makes me sad. It fills me with a sense of disappointment. Like how am I going to look at Uma Thurman being a badass on screen knowing that behind it she was having a completely godawful time doing this?

I don't think anyone's a bad person if they don't "cancel" things made by creators they disagree with; everyone's entitled to their own coping mechanism and I know plenty of people say they still enjoy Lovecraft's books or whatever even though they know he was an abominable racist and are able to separate a work from its creator and take ownership of it for their own interpretation. Personally I can't. For me there's a similar emotional kickback to having to think about an ex — it just makes me nauseous.

Tangent and not targeting this post to shit on anyone who's made any kind of point on this thread about anything; I think "cancel culture" is a complex and emotive topic with valid nuanced positions on more than one side of the debate. I'd shudder to boil down and simplify this to any kind of good and bad dichotomy, in either direction.

I also think the point @Pandora made about the way people receive and perceive antagonistic roleplay, using the "cancellation" of authors as a comparison, shouldn't be missed in furore over the latter very heated topic.

@bored said in Separating Art From Artist:

But then again, this might also affect, say, one's college-aged activist-minded but still immature child getting spotted at a left leaning rally and losing out on future job opportunities when their would-be employer googles them.

It always cuts both ways.

Although this sucks, wouldn't the child in question be happier, in the long run?

My facebook profile is pretty clear on where I stand on political issues. I'm aware potential employers (or realistically these days, clients) google that stuff, but that doesn't actually bother me.

I was much shier about my political beliefs when I was younger and felt it was much more important to keep the peace, not rock the boat, accommodate everybody. I wanted to be nice and likeable.

You know what, though, I ended up in a job I hated, with sexist, fat-shaming employers and colleagues who would roll their eyes and shut the conversation down any time someone even dared utter the accursed word "feminism". Mind you my job had physical demands, but the fact that myself and my female colleagues were sexually harassed at work, regularly, and food-shamed at meal-times (I was stationed at a remote location for a field research job) was awful. I had just gone vegan at the time and I was not a preachy vegan. I wasn't even a strict vegan. I was a "minding my own business just eating what I want to eat" vegan yet people at my job regularly felt it was their business to tell me why I needed bacon and butter and bullied me for my choices. At a review of my leadership skills I was told off for being bossy.

This job made me beyond depressed. Also, they broke several laws concerning employee rights, which I now actively campaign for.

If someone scours for information about me on the interwebs and discovers that I'm a loud-mouthed vegan feminist and doesn't want to hire me because that? Good. I don't want to work for them, either. I want to work for and with people who think I'm fucking awesome and will treat me with respect. I want to work with men who aren't intimidated by feminism, because those are men who want license to be abusive towards their female colleagues and employees.

Really, I think a lot of this boils down to a person's willingness to accept consequences for their actions.

I am a loud-mouthed, preachy feminist & environmental advocate and I gladly accept the consequences for that.

Fascists and misogynists can do the same.

@mietze

Eh.

Here's the thing though: I don't have to RP. Between the many books and TV shows everyone keeps telling me I need to read/watch, a flexible work schedule and a semi-active social life, RP for me isn't a necessity, but an option. I am an introvert, and I enjoy my own company. I like writing, and view RP as a creative outlet for that hobby, but if it's not satisfying the itch I most want to scratch I can just write on my own and I'm happy with that, or I can stick to a small, select handful of RPers whom I know are always guaranteed to be a good time.

I don't see why I should adjust my expectations or lower my standards, ever or at all. My standards are high because I value my time and patience. If I'm not getting back the same level of what I feel like I'm extending myself to give, I don't feel the need to consider that the problem is with me, because I can just go and get it elsewhere. Or do something else.

Cries of "elitist" have always annoyed me far more than the recipients of that label. And you know what? Sometimes I've been on the other end of things. Sometimes people have looked at my stories and characters and RP and been like, 'not for me, thanks'. To which I shrug and say, OK, bye, because again — my ability to have a good time does not depend on one person's interest and approval.

If they're loudly complaining about the perceived inferiority of everyone around them? Sure, they're an arsehole; they're sucking the energy out of everyone else who's here having a good time and they should just go, live their best life with people who apparently meet their expectations.

It's perhaps the negative, whiny, soul-sucking narcissists you meant to target with your posts, but I don't agree with the conclusion that people just need to be more accepting to be happy. I'm never happy when I lower my expectations to just extend myself to anyone and everyone who wants a piece of me — nothing makes me burn out and hate myself faster.

You don't have to announce your preferences and use those to shit on people. It's a similar precedent to the one espoused on that dating thread a while back. It's the equivalent of having something ultra-gross like "no fatties" on your profile. But having those preferences? It's fine. I think shaming people for that is just as bad as shaming people for just about anything else.

My sleep is funny so I just woke up, gonna respond to some comments one by one:

@bored said in Separating Art From Artist:

@Kestrel

That argument easily reduces to 'don't become an activist if you're concerned about having a livelihood.' Is that really the stance you want to take? Like... do you not get that you're basically arguing for your own suppression? I don't get it. Most of these things (like the employment contract issue that you didn't respond on) are far more effective as tools of oppression than they are as tools of activism.

I oppose Capitalism. In my ideal world, no one's livelihood would depend on corporate mercy, and anyone who wanted to become an activist could do so without fear of, 'How am I going to feed my kids?'

However.

I also live in the real world, and I am at corporate mercy. We all are. This doesn't just mean I depend on the good opinion of superiors and consumers I come into contact with to put food on my table; it also means I depend on them to protect me from other corporate entities.

As a simple illustrative example (made up): I'm a woman at the workplace. My colleague/superior is a misogynist who likes to tweet about how women suck dick to get ahead at work, that Men should Go Their Own Way, that someone at his work has poppin' tits, or he posts an upskirt picture of a woman he rode the subway with this morning.

Any number of these things is going to make me feel incredibly unsafe at work. Whether I want to be or not, I'm both at his mercy and the mercy of my employer to decide if they'd rather protect his job, or my job, where I'm likely not to be safe near him.

I really, really hope he gets fired for this. I hope their burning question isn't, 'How is Creeper McCreeperson going to feed his kids?' And instead, 'Oh God, if Creeper McCreeperson has such a backwards view of women, how is he treating our female employees? How do they feel having to share a workspace with him?'

I do not feel oppressed as an activist. It's a choice I actively make each and every time I either take to the streets or volunteer some of my time for a cause I care about. Is it always easy? No. It has pros and cons that go beyond simply time management; it can be emotionally draining, though it can also be wonderfully empowering and a great way to connect with like-minded people. When the cons start to outweigh the pros, I take a break to focus on other aspects of my life. This would be true regardless of corporate influence. I wouldn't do this if I wasn't incredibly passionate, but it remains 100% a choice, never a necessity.

You know what isn't a choice? Being a woman, or coming from any kind of socially or economically underprivileged or marginalised background. These aren't things anyone can just take a break from. These are things I feel oppressed by, or by proxy, sympathy for other people who are oppressed by them.

I have the world's tiniest violin for those who feel oppressed by their need to express hatred and/or antisocial behaviour. Doubly so if this happens to include espousing genocide. Ultradoubly so if we're talking about rich and famous people losing positions of influence to abuse. I care a lot more about their victims. While I firmly believe in forgiveness and rehabilitation, that takes time and work, and I will not be making it my personal responsibility to provide them with it.

For me, one of the most compelling arguments on cancel culture made on this thread so far is @surreality's fear (or fear by proxy) that one stupid tweet or something similar made by a person years and years ago can damage their career far into the future. And in these cases I think there should still be consequences and accountability; you might want to post another, updated tweet, apologising years later and explaining you have learned and grown since then and no longer stand by the views you once professed. Depending on the severity, you might want to do more than that to demonstrate reparative intent and action. If it seems you're still the same shitbag? I don't really care how long ago it was, it remains relevant today. And where we're talking about people being actively racist/sexist or whatever losing opportunities, I just don't care at all.

@bored said in Separating Art From Artist:

I think I'm going to join in with the whole, 'this isn't worth engaging with the insisted narrow focus on the KKK' because, yeah, the inherent Godwin kind of makes it pointless.

It's not Godwin's Law, A) because the thread started out specifically about racism and someone who very literally endorsed Hitler in his own words not anyone else's; no one put that in Lovecraft's mouth and being cancelled for fascism is totally relevant here; and B) because while @GreenFlashlight hasn't specified their stance on this count, both myself and @insomniac7809 at least have specified that we stand by the universal principle that if you take a public stand for something, even something like gay rights or feminism, you should be willing to be held accountable for that stand.

@surreality said in Separating Art From Artist:

'Sins of the father' is a problem not to be ignored.

I don't think this is a real issue. Is Ronan Farrow suffering from lost opportunities because his father Woody Allen has been outed (in part by Ronan Farrow) as a creep? If there's a lynchmob coming for Allen — and in both my opinion and the Farrows' he hasn't suffered near enough consequences for his actions — it looks like his son's right there on the front lines bearing the biggest torch next to his sister.

It seems to me that if your heart's in the right place, though I respect and honour that it can be much more difficult to condemn a parent, being the offspring of a disgraced individual can spur, not bar you, from being an ally to whatever movement they were disgraced by.

See also: Meghan Phelps-Roper who was raised by and then left the Westboro Baptist Church and now uses the weight of her family ties to condemn them; Rachel Jeffs, daughter of the polygamous Mormon cult leader Warren Jeffs, who wrote an entire book exposing and condemning his crimes.

@Ghost said in Well, this sums up why I RP:

My phone auto corrected manager to master. Fuck you, phone.

BITCH WELCOME TO CAPITALISM.

Gonna take a break from yelling at people on the internet just to say I have loads of respect for loads of you.

@Staricide I found that video helpful.
@surreality that ectopic pregnancy pro-life scare story, wow and ugh.
@JinShei thanks for campaigning on a really important issue.

@faraday said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

The leader-admiring thing? That's a subtlety and I can see both sides. Personally I would not be bothered by a character who had been convinced by propaganda that their country's leader was a good guy, even if that leader were Stalin or Hirohito. Especially if it were coming from a place of wanting to explore that character learning the truth and coming to grips with the reality that their beloved leader was partaking in war crimes. Admittedly, though, that might be too subtle for most MU stories and I wouldn't blame anyone for wanting to nope out of it on principle.

I would personally feel immensely disgusted interacting with any character who tried saying Hitler wasn't so bad, even if they didn't know the facts, even though the Holocaust hadn't properly started in the alternate timeline. (Per official dates; though a sense of fear/unease should have certainly started setting in.)

Like, upfront, just gonna say, I don't want to do it and will probably leave a scene if that happens. That kind of thing happens today and is used to justify modern antisemitism. Even an imagined world with an alternate timeline can't alter the real world context it's being played in.

As a note, I may feel differently about this if the Savage Skies hadn't been intentionally revised to put everyone on the side of relative good. I maintain there could be value in stories that feature even PC-controlled fascists, but these would have to be played in such a way that I understand the player's intentions are specifically to ridicule and criticise, not exonerate fascism. The Savage Skies doesn't allow for such ambiguity, so I'd prefer to see only characters that are unambiguously sympathetic — and I have no interest in reading any attempts to cast any Hitler fanboys as such.

I'm not going to weigh in on what @hedgehog should do. The tickets were already bought without prior knowledge of the situation and the money is already spent. The only real question then IMHO is whether you're still going to enjoy the show. If not, one other option is to sell the tickets on StubHub; that way at least it isn't wasted on your part even if it still goes into the same pocket.

I will say though that I don't ever feel bad for the rich and famous losing said fame and wealth. I can't imagine why I would.

I thought about putting this in gripes but honestly I enjoy it way too much for it to qualify.

The struggle between knowing exactly who someone is and wanting to let them have their fun thinking they’re being super slick, but also wanting to call them out on not being as sneaky as they think they are.

It’s this whole ‘you know that I know that you know ...’ and honestly it’s super giggles.

@Aria said in Good TV:

watching Netflix, bullet journaling, and hanging out with the dog.

You're living the dream honestly, I want your life.

@Apos said in A bit of trouble on Firefly:

@Caryatid I legit think of this every time he comes up.

Can we get real about dick pics for a second? I am interested in this armchair psychoanalysis. Why do people send them? What is the motive? What goes through a person's mind when they snap a picture of their penis and then share it with a stranger? I am genuinely curious.

Science doesn't know. Or does it? Are there studies on dick pics yet?

Back to RL peeves, disgruntlements and irks.

I just saw a fashion advert on Facebook for stylish anti-pollution air masks.

If that's not peak capitalism I don't know what is.