Rose Blossom

I'm an independent artisan, I am petty bourgeois because I have petty bourgeois class interests and have small amounts of capital--even if it's just in my personal checking account. It does not matter that I make the same amount I'd make working retail full time.

Capital is not the same thing as wealth or money more generally. Capital is money used to gain more money. When I buy a hide and hardware, I am utilizing my money as capital so that I can transform those materials into a final product that I sell for more than those materials cost me. Thus, it is in my interest to be able to get those materials for as cheaply as I can, which is to say, it is in my interest for the companies that I buy from to buy their necessary labor as cheaply as possible. There is a distinct possibility that I make less than the workers who raise the cows, tan the leather, and work in the warehouse, but they are still working class--someone else extracts surplus value from their labor--whereas I am not.

I sometimes vend at a local sex shop. If there were to be a struggle between the workers and the owners, it would be in my direct material interest to side against the workers in order to maintain my relationship with the shop. Whatever personal choice I make in the matter is irrelevant. Whether I act against my own interests or not, I still occupy a position that puts my interests in opposition to the workers' interests.

@friendlyfrankenstein and @facefullabugz

Not only is this 100% safe to watch if you haven't played/seen chapter 5 yet (this came out over a year ago), but right from the beginning these two are willing to talk in depth about the characters, and that, while there is a meta story being told about how we interact with fiction, the role it plays in our lives, what it can do versus what it cannot, there is also a very deep and compelling story about these characters and their hardships, their pasts and their futures, and how they matter.

When you play a video game you play a character. Listen—Listen. This is not an isekai! This game is not ending like Omikron, nobody's gonna load in and go "OKAY PLAYER, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAVING OUR BEAUTIFUL DELTARUNE! IT'S TIME FOR YOU, THE LITERAL HUMAN PLAYING THIS GAME TO GO BACK T—" No! And that's, that's in there, but if you take a look at this as more literal: Who is this? Who is this person who recognizes this house, who is this person who wants to look at everything? Who can talk to Sans and say "It's good to see you again?" Can talk to Undyne and ask her about Alphys? Who is this person who is a part of Kris, who right now IS Kris, who kinda does their best to act normal, but also to help people? That's interesting to me, because whoever this is, both of us are gonna wind up really loving our friends, and wanting to do right for them. And being absolutely ready to go back on our word to both of them and throw ourselves into the Sacrifice Machine if it gets Susie out of this goddamn narrative

It's just so refreshing to see this being talked about outside some limited circles on Tumblr. These guys are not on the "isn't it sad that we're puppeting this poor teenager and making them do Dark Deeds (hugging Ralsei)" train, and instead are approaching it as what I feel it has always been intended, as a partnership, as a roleplay exercise in "How do I play this part of someone I barely know, a part that is unfathomably powerful in some ways but utterly helpless in others? A part that is made to empathize with what is happening in their lives, to feel joys and sadness alongside them, but also made to feel isolated and hopeless when thrown in a cage with nothing to do about it"