Amanda's Suffering Gem Hell

the way Steven Universe sticks hard to its Steven-only perspective can be frustrating, and I get why it's criticized, but the more I think about it the more that frustration feels intentional. the point of the show being structured that way IS to emphasize the frustration of a limited perspective where information is omitted until someone decides to tell you, or you personally seek it out.

True to this approach, personalities such as Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Mao, and Castro never constructed a contradiction between patriotism and internationalism but have always seen in the liberation struggle of oppressed nations an essential moment in the path of internationalism and universalism, of what Gramsci calls “integral humanism.” Not so, however, Western Marxism. On the one hand—think of Althusser in particular—the categories “humanity,” “people,” and “nation” were eyed with suspicion, as if they were a betrayal of the class struggle. An attitude of superstitious purism that forgets that the categories “socialism,” “revolution,” and “working class” can also be turned in a conservative and even reactionary direction (the example of the National Socialist German Workers Party of unfortunate memory may suffice here).

Tumblr was a vehicle to transmit oversimplified, contextless ideas from Foucault and Judith Butler via a giant game of telephone where most of the participants were teenagers without any actual knowledge of Butler or Foucault and while it inspired a handful of teenagers to study theory for real it mostly led to widespread misunderstanding and misuses of academic terminology that in some cases escaped into the wider internet and even offline discourse and had results ranging from "annoying and unproductive" to "actively counterproductive." I'm not saying discussing ideas online is bad and I absolutely believe tiktok is worse than tumblr at its worst but let's not kid ourselves about the academic rigor of this website.

Homophobic Pearl