greymantledlady

Obviously, there are Eridian kids with special needs, and a few of them even filter into his classes. But one specific type of special needs kid has never shown up in his classes, and the only reason he even learned of the condition is because Rocky and Adrien's first pebble has the condition.

It's initially quite a struggle for them to deal with, and Grace sympathizes of course, because the child will apparently have huge learning and academic struggles and will likely never be able to live on their own. That is, until he learns the details of the disability.

Basically, it's a condition where the part of the Eridian brain that gives them their eidetic memory isn't fully developed, and so these kids just... can't remember things the way most eridians do. And in a culture where an eidetic memory is the norm, all things cater to that, so not having that is actually a massive disability.

But Grace is like, so... this kid just learns the same way a human does, or something like. Which is nothing new to him, though he is somewhat boggled at how much Rocky and Adrian struggle with their infant and their "slow" learning curve, even as far as initial developmental stages. Grace, on the other hand, simply treats the kid the same way he would a human infant, and Rocky and Adrien are impressed with his patience.

But, through this, it occurs to Grace that there must be other kids out there with this disability who likely aren't getting the attention and chances in life that they deserve, because Eridian culture is particularly hostile toward this disability, and actively views those with it as unable to function in regular society.

So Grace demands that a special course be put together where he teaches kids with this disability specifically. Rocky is hesitant, as most kids with this disability are home schooled and kind of... kept shut away. But Grace insists and as one of Erid's saviors, he gets what he wants eventually.

His first class is super small, maybe only three kids because so few parents were willing to advertise that their children have this disability. And because of the stigma around it, even those who agreed to it are super unsure and want to be present during the lessons, perhaps paranoid about the impression it will leave on Savior Grace, who is so accustomed to only teaching the most gifted students.

But Grace knows exactly how to deal with these kids. Some of them have varying degrees of function when it comes to their memory banks, which isn't so unlike teaching kids on earth. And so Grace is able to introduce all these tools and teaching techniques that were previously unheard of on Erid (though very normal on Earth) like having textbooks for reference with you at all times and having strategies that are less focused on memorization for understanding, and providing these kids with tools like calculators and teaching them the art of taking notes to look back on, etc etc.

Suddenly, with all these tools that most Eridians don't need, these kids are learning at a much faster rate, and succeeding with the help of all their little tools. And because so many normal eridians are ignorant of Grace's actual biology, it's shocking to them that Savior Grace doesn't have an eidetic memory either (shocking to everyone but Rocky anyway)--that his brain functions quite similarly in capacity to these "disabled" children.

Once this news gets around, suddenly there's more kids in his special classes, and there's all kinds of discourse being inflamed because the real reason these kids can't live on their own or function is lack of support from Eridian society.

If Savior Grace, who is well respected as a genius in his own right amongst the Eridians, can function so successfully, they why can't these kids?

Obviously, there are Eridian kids with special needs, and a few of them even filter into his classes. But one specific type of special needs kid has never shown up in his classes, and the only reason he even learned of the condition is because Rocky and Adrien's first pebble has the condition.

It's initially quite a struggle for them to deal with, and Grace sympathizes of course, because the child will apparently have huge learning and academic struggles and will likely never be able to live on their own. That is, until he learns the details of the disability.

Basically, it's a condition where the part of the Eridian brain that gives them their eidetic memory isn't fully developed, and so these kids just... can't remember things the way most eridians do. And in a culture where an eidetic memory is the norm, all things cater to that, so not having that is actually a massive disability.

But Grace is like, so... this kid just learns the same way a human does, or something like. Which is nothing new to him, though he is somewhat boggled at how much Rocky and Adrian struggle with their infant and their "slow" learning curve, even as far as initial developmental stages. Grace, on the other hand, simply treats the kid the same way he would a human infant, and Rocky and Adrien are impressed with his patience.

But, through this, it occurs to Grace that there must be other kids out there with this disability who likely aren't getting the attention and chances in life that they deserve, because Eridian culture is particularly hostile toward this disability, and actively views those with it as unable to function in regular society.

So Grace demands that a special course be put together where he teaches kids with this disability specifically. Rocky is hesitant, as most kids with this disability are home schooled and kind of... kept shut away. But Grace insists and as one of Erid's saviors, he gets what he wants eventually.

His first class is super small, maybe only three kids because so few parents were willing to advertise that their children have this disability. And because of the stigma around it, even those who agreed to it are super unsure and want to be present during the lessons, perhaps paranoid about the impression it will leave on Savior Grace, who is so accustomed to only teaching the most gifted students.

But Grace knows exactly how to deal with these kids. Some of them have varying degrees of function when it comes to their memory banks, which isn't so unlike teaching kids on earth. And so Grace is able to introduce all these tools and teaching techniques that were previously unheard of on Erid (though very normal on Earth) like having textbooks for reference with you at all times and having strategies that are less focused on memorization for understanding, and providing these kids with tools like calculators and teaching them the art of taking notes to look back on, etc etc.

Suddenly, with all these tools that most Eridians don't need, these kids are learning at a much faster rate, and succeeding with the help of all their little tools. And because so many normal eridians are ignorant of Grace's actual biology, it's shocking to them that Savior Grace doesn't have an eidetic memory either (shocking to everyone but Rocky anyway)--that his brain functions quite similarly in capacity to these "disabled" children.

Once this news gets around, suddenly there's more kids in his special classes, and there's all kinds of discourse being inflamed because the real reason these kids can't live on their own or function is lack of support from Eridian society.

If Savior Grace, who is well respected as a genius in his own right amongst the Eridians, can function so successfully, they why can't these kids?

Droodles by Roger Price (from his 1953 book). Droodles (a blend of “doodle”, “drawing”, “riddle”) are simple drawings with a witty, often absurd, caption. The first one, as some of you may know, was used by Frank Zappa for his 1982 album, Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. (Zappa, a fan of Price's work, lived just a few miles from the artist and personally sought permission to use the image.)

Thursday Murder Club is an egregious display of anti-Polish xenophobia.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. Its cast is stellar, its setting refreshing, its awkwardness familiar to anyone who's ever spent any time in the UK. But then it got to Bogdan, and are you fucking kidding me.

Let's set the scene.

Bogdan Jankowski, the Polish character, is played by a British actor, because apparently no-one out of 680,000ish Polish diaspora in the UK was available and the film's budget couldn't cough up 50 quid for a fucking Ryanair flight to Warsaw and back.

For some reason, Bogdan's accent is something between Spanish and Russian. You know. Foreign.

Bogdan's mother is named Marina, which is plot-relevant because that's how one of the film's main characters uses to endear herself to him. Marina is not a Polish name. Name her something like Marysia for fuck's sake, except that would be too hard for the Anglo viewer to pronounce, wouldn't it

Another way for the main character to gain his trust is to speak Polish with Bogdan. I could not stress this enough: what Helen Mirren and fucking Henry Lloyd-Hughes speak is unintelligible. It's garbled nonsense. I would not process that as Polish without subtitles. Again, this is in a country where the Polish diaspora leaps out at you from every closet, but apparently no-one was available on set to do basic linguistic consulting.

That's still not the kicker though. (Spoilers to the film in the following paragraphs.)

See, Bogdan's story is that he's a construction worker. He arrived in Kent as a victim of human trafficking and modern slavery. He cannot travel to see his old mother, because his boss has taken away his passport. Bogdan visits the boss to ask for his passport back, is met with violence, and then kills his human-trafficking slaver boss in self defence.

He is then punched and dragged away by the police, never to be heard from again.

There are two more killers in the film, both old white British people. Both Penny and her husband get a compassionate outro, left alone to allow for a dignified and painless murder-suicide, and then eulogised as paragons of virtue. Meanwhile, the actual slavery victim is nowhere to be seen, left in the tender care of the British law enforcement. The system works! It works so well! (Later the main character makes a deal with the slaver boss so that he can keep Doing Slaver Things as long as he leaves the pensioners' estate alone.)

I am Polish. I live in England. I cannot watch this movie without my blood boiling. The fucking audacity to set up a plot propped entirely by the foreignness of the dumb hot construction man and then handwave the substance of that foreignness (WHICH. AGAIN. I COULD NOT OVERSTATE HOW MUCH POLISHNESS IS THERE IN THE SOCIAL FABRIC OF THE UK AND HOW EASY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TO REP IT). The human trafficking piece could have made for an interesting, compassionate story of a migrant's personal tragedy, but instead just feels like a slap in the face when the SLAVER GUY is ALLOWED TO DO MORE SLAVERING just so the British pensioners can keep their community. How much more on the nose can you get???

I wish this were a conscious political thesis at least, that the movie were a consciously fascist piece of shit that I could hate in peace. But it's a lot more insidious than that. It glides over its xenophobia with a kind of idle benevolence (the main character gazes on as the police drags Bogdan away, feeling bad), but then moves swiftly on to its main thesis about old people's loneliness and how a purpose-built community can heal it. Which is a good fucking thesis and I wish there were more of it! But you know what? I wish even more than senior representation didn't come pre-packaged with old white entitlement!!! you fucking plonkers

Thursday Murder Club doesn't spend a minute contemplating the foreigner that staffs its murder mystery, just like real-life old white Brits don't spend a minute thinking about their nurses and plumbers and cleaners and lorry drivers. They're not characters of any depth. They're extras. Their names, languages, cultures, stories, and angsts don't concern the director, and the implication is that they certainly shouldn't concern the audience. Here's an old white British woman you should feel for, quick! Also here's a Black cop that ends the story in a better place than she started, we're not consciously fascist here.

I want to talk about the harm caused by trying to police AI in creative communities, because things are getting really toxic. For the record, I dislike generative AI too. I think it’s built on theft and goes against the point of human expression. But turning online spaces into places where everyone is watched just to catch 'AI users' is hurting marginalized creators. Before you accuse someone based on a gut feeling or an unreliable detector, remember this: What people call AI 'tells' often look a lot like standard ESL writing. Non-native English speakers usually use structured, precise grammar or stick to common transitions because that’s how they learn the language. Accusing someone of using AI just because their writing sounds 'too clean' or 'formulaic' is often just xenophobia. This also hurts neurodivergent or hyper-focused writers. Many writers on the spectrum have their own structured styles, or they can write a lot in a short time. Calling high productivity or a different writing style 'robotic' pushes away the very people who make fan spaces interesting. The 'witch hunt' mindset does real damage. A community can handle a few cases of bad, AI-generated text getting through. What it can’t handle is a place where creators are too scared to post because a few loud voices are ready to attack them over a simple sentence.

AI models are trained on very structured, perfect grammar. So when a real person uses precise words, common transitions like 'Furthermore' or 'It is important to note,' or textbook grammar, detectors often say it’s AI. There’s a real ESL bias: studies show non-native English speakers get falsely accused much more often. Because ESL writers use standard words and sentence structures, detectors often flag their real work as robotic. One Stanford study found that 61% of essays written by international students were wrongly flagged as AI by at least one detector.

everyone needs to hear about the situation in india right now. the youth of this nation are going through hell and back to protect the foundations that our country was built on in the first place, while the adults who are supposed to actually be in charge try to silence our voices.

NEET, which is an exam taken by millions of students per year and is the ONLY gateway for medical admissions across the country, had its papers leaked. so many took their lives because this exam meant everything for their future. and NTA, the agency who conducts this exam, was not held accountable.

there was national backlash. cockroach janta party (initially a satirical political party formed by abhijeet dipke in retaliation to the remarks of the chief justice of india calling the youth "cockroaches" and "parasites of society") started protests at jantar mantar, demanding the resignation of the union education minister, dharmendra pradhan. the movement also asked for ten million inr (~100,000 usd) in compensation for the families of students who died by suicide and wanted NTA be held accountable.

sonam wangchuk, a climate activist and education reformer, also went on a hunger strike at jantar mantar to protest against this corruption in india's higher education system. his fast began on june 28, demanding the resignation of the union education minister. his fast lasted for 20 days until delhi police FORCIBLY removed him and admitted him to safdarjung hospital on july 18.

because of this, cockroach janta party announced "chalo sansad," a march to the parliament beginning on june 20th, 9:00 am ist. but the police seems to be responding with water cannons, mobile jammers, and baton charge. all of this, because of a peaceful protest led by people no older than 30.

The government is doing everything it can except for actually having an honest dialogue with the protestors.

It’s important to note that despite all the police brutality, despite how the government has had extra forces airlifted to Delhi to help quash the protest, this has deterred no one.

Not only is the protest in Delhi going strong, the government closed down every metro station in Central Delhi in an effort to stop them and it still hasn’t.

There’s protests in most major cities in India in solidarity. Palakkad, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, and probably more besides. There has been a protest in the UK as well in solidarity.

People who aren’t at the protest are donating so much food that the organisers have had to ask them to stop doing so because there’s more than enough. In lieu of that people are donating money for medicine, lawyers, cleanup, and umbrellas.

Most crucially, hopes aren’t broken. Spirits aren’t broken. People with bruises and broken bones are still showing up. People are showing up cosplaying as freedom fighters and super heroes and a dinosaur. People are doxxing goons who show up trying to incite violence. People are making reels. People in Mumbai literally opened a moving police detainment van to allow arrested students to escape.