Hi and Bedropped

screenshot of a tweet by @pot8um: “Does anyone have that recent study that determined all 8 billion of us could be easily housed and fed with only 30% of the current global labor output and that our collective suffering is manufactured by capitalism...”

reply by @jasonhickel: “Yes: sciencedirect.com/... [a url that is cut off in the screenshot]” and an attached image of text:

“With this approach, good lives can be achieved for all without requiring large creases in total global throughput and output. Provisioning decent living standards (DLS) for 8.5 billion people would require only 30% of current global resource and energy use, leaving a substantial surplus for additional consumption, public luxury, scientific advancement, and other social investments. Such a future requires planning to” [text is cut off here].

Second image transcription:

A lot of traditional fantasy fans don't like it because it's, well, missing most of the stuff that we love about traditional fantasy. There is often very little character development and very little philosophical musing. There is often no nuance or complexity.

But I've seen folks say some very mean things about the subgenre and the people who like it. ... And I don't think they get the fundamental draw of LitRPG. I'm mostly coming at this as an outsider, so I could be very wrong about this; I've seen a lot of people talk about the LitRPG/progression fantasy settings they're building on r/worldbuilding and r/fantasy, and I've read a wee bit of it but not much. I'd love to see someone who reads a lot in the genre weigh in.

But it seems like the main draw of this genre, the main daydream powering the fantasy, isn't actually about the leveling up or even about the clever tricks that the heroes use when they're under-leveled. It's that in a LitRPG world, if what you can do is reduced to a number, that number means something.

Like, the whole 'isekai with power scaling based on video game mechanics' genre came from Japan and Korea, right? And it's aimed at teenagers, right? ....Think about it for a sec. Across the world, and especially in East Asia, a lot of teenagers' lives revolve around one number: their school grades (and/or test scores). If your grades suck, you are treated as subhuman until you get your shit together. If your grades are good, you are under an incredible amount of pressure to keep it that way. Your grades/test scores are A Number That Defines Your Fate.

And like, grades are a terrible measure of human worth for a whole bunch of reasons. But one of the biggest ones is that, as a high schooler, they're not actually under your control. There are absolutely things you can do to raise your grades if you're struggling, but a lot of your life circumstances, as a teenager, are defined by someone else. If your parents are fighting and keeping you up til 3 AM? Or if you get a teacher that hates you and grades you accordingly? Your grades are going to suffer, through no fault of your own, and there isn't much to be done about it. Everyone knows that The Number That Defines Your Fate is garbage, and yet you have to obsess over it, or you're going to suffer for the rest of your life.

The fantasy of LitRPG is that the Number that Defines Your Fate is an objective fact, that hard work and persistence can actually change that number for the better, and that having a higher Number makes you cool rather than 'tired, stressed out, and unable to have any time to be yourself'. It isn't focused on relationships because most of its target audience doesn't have time for relationships, romantic or otherwise. There isn't room for philosophy or nuance, because most of the kids reading this stuff are tired to death and want popcorn fiction they can read between juggling 16 different assignments.

In my favorite titles protagonists find themselves in a world with no context and with power structures revolving absolutely around NTDYF. Somehow, through witt, gritt, or luck they survive a world hell-bent on crushing them for no other reason than someone stronger exists.

Somewhere along the way as they get stronger they become accustomed to what it takes, who they have to become to survive this world. Eventually, because they've become accustomed to responding to every threat with everything they have, they inevitably respond to a situation with disproportionate force. In the ensuing horror/realization, they're confronted for the first time with the responsibility of their power. Do they become like the people/system that tried to crush them? Pursue power until they can protect themself and maybe the people they care about? Do they try to dismantle the system itself for those that will never have the means to raise their NTDYF?

This is where the Litrpg fanbase primarily splits. While stories like these explore and criticize the way we see power used/abused day to day, there is also a large part of the fan base that really enjoys titles that emphasize the pursuit of power for power's sake. Those titles tend to focus on fighting, training, and grinding out levels.

These two camps often find themselves at odds with each other! There are notable titles that fit these respective archetypes, and it's extremely common for fans of one to claim that they couldn't finish the most popular title of the other.

that conditioned response is considered a form of learned helplessness wherein the victim stops fighting back against what it believe to be the inevitable

but not everyone breaks under torture

✨Indie Animation Black Magical Girls ✨

⭐☀️🌹♦️

Aika - "Pretty Please I Don't Want to Be a Magical girl" - @kianamaiart

Tammy - "The Three Tomes" - @thethreetomes / @breanimator

Sahara - "Wheels and Roses " - @fumichun

Ami - "Towards Galaxy's End" - @towardsgalaxysend / @kenzyxluv

What happens when you get 4 Black Animation Industry femmes/folks that love magical girls ? You get 4 BLACK magical girls with 4 different spins on the genre. Black girls belong in every genre, Black girls can go on adventures. Black girls can be loved. Black girls are silly, whimsical, witches , skaters , space vampires , and magical.

✨Black. Girl. Magic. ✨

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.