BLACK LIVES MATTER

Served Cold - Submitted by SeesawSiya

And I'm not going to doubt that that DOES happen sometimes. Emphasis on SOMETIMES. HOWEVER there are multiple sides to any story, and back when I was in high school my ex-gf did end up believing (and telling people T_T) that I dumped her for a fictional character.

The thing is, I didn't. At all. Me getting a crush on a new fictional dude and wanting to write a fic about it did happen shortly before our relationship ended but our relationship ended for entirely separate reasons (I'm bi and she's jealous. Do that math on that one). But them being related was a convenient narrative for her, so she went with it.

Then there was my bff in high school. We wrote self-insert fics together where we'd meet our respective f/os and date em. She ended up with a guy who was very possessive and jealous. This guy was jealous to the point where felt threatened that she slept with a stuffed animal. ("Why would you want to cuddle that thing when I'm right here?") He told her it was him or the fictional crushes, by which he meant she was to stop writing fanfics with me, stop RPing, stop calling them cute/hot, stop drawing fanart (regardless of it's self insert or otherwise fanservicey), stop any kind of acknowledgement that she was into these characters as any more than a narrative device.

She did choose him, but I fully believe if she had said "No, this is fun for me, I want to keep doing it" he would have described it as her choosing her fictional crushes over him.

Soooo...yeah, like I said, I'm not doubting that it DOES sometimes happen, but...if someone said "My partner dumped me for [fictional character]", let's just say I withhold judgement until I know exactly what was said. Cuz there are a LOT of things I would choose over a partner who gives me any kind of ultimatum about my hobbies.

Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!) - Submitted by: fastman27

Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating the social or political environment without creating new wealth.[1] Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They result in reduced economic efficiency through misallocation of resources, reduced wealth creation, lost government revenue, heightened income inequality,[2][3] risk of growing political bribery, and potential national decline.