#snail rant

What texts/books/topics of research solidified your beliefs?

If you had to label your political ideology, what would you label it?

On question 2: if you are aware of criticisms with such texts/books/topics of research, how would you respond to them?

Good question, honestly i dont really know. It started off with joke-ish social media shitposts and gradually grew in me when i actually considered these things. At first i naturally fell into classic psyops (like christian "nationalism" etc) but when i discovered more about pagan ancestry i felt it in my very soul and knew id dedicate even more. I own a couple of books (such as m3ink4mpf which im still reading - armanean runes and the black sun (recommend this to anyone interested in esoterica, not political.), i have digital books/pdfs too. I also enjoy video essays! I did too have personal irl experiences that contributed aswell, but i try not to cherry pick experiences including my own.

whereas most redesigns that are like "I love the monster high girls so I gave them a design make-over in my style 🥰" will yield the most admittedly opulent and overdesigned things you've seen in your life that would never pass the conception stages of a TV show or something but by god if they are not serotonin incarnate. i will never tire of OAK doll-tubers making the MLP FiM girls as BJDs, never ever ever EVER

How-ev-er. Trans women can benefit from it too. I don't know what she's up to these days but Blaire White definitely milked her position as a pretty white woman to unleash abuse on other trans people and garner some sort of political power from it (that will inevitably try to eat her alive if it hasn't already). Not to mention if you're a transdude with just a sprinkle of melanin in your bones or one (1) disability, that thin layer of social protection erodes away like burning paper in seconds anyway. Because it's not about men vs women it's about white patriarchy. If you're the Right Kind Of Woman or at least know how to look like one you can get (conditional) protections (sometimes), but even that's paper thin because you can be as pretty and white as you want but if a richer whiter cissy wants to abuse you they can and will probably get away with it. No amount of passing will ever make a transdude enough of the Right Kind Of Man to ever hold substantial privilege in white patriarchy hinged on his maleness alone unless he gets like every surgery under the sun and even then all it takes is a flash of the tranniehood to slip through and whatever privilege there was will be eclipsed by transphobic nonsense. Some of us can be the Right Kind Of Woman in brief intervals but most of us aren't. I'm white af and don't pass for shit but I don't shave or style myself and when I do it's alt so the privilege I have is tied to the fact that I'm paler than a chalk wall while my maleness shoves me into the weirdgirl category for most people; which is still an acceptable box to beat up for a lot of society. I've privilege over black trans women but it's because I'm white not because I'm a man. I've privilege over trans women sex workers but that's because I am lower middle class not because I'm a man. I'm not lower middle class because I'm a man either it's because my mom is educated with a decently paying job and willing to take care of me.

If faced with a genderbent clone of myself that's a tgirl instead of a tboy we'd be in the same soup because our genders mean nothing in the eyes of white patriarchy beyond how it's Wrong and should be subjugated back into place.

I've more nuanced feelings on people taking issue with "transandrobros" than a lot of my peers, I think there's genuine hurt and fear and trauma there over how absolutely shit the internet treats trans women (kiwifarming from what I've seen hits trans women so bad it's disgusting, but trans men aren't immune to it either, but anecdotally speaking trans women/femmes seem to make up a larger swath of lolcowing victims than trans men/mascs), but I harbor strong suspicion against anyone who insists trans women are more oppressed inherently on the axis of simply being women, as if trans men are the only ones who can transition towards privilege, as if being a man immediately elevates you despite the social position of Failed Man/Woman being the most likely outcome for most trans dudes in the eyes of White Patriarchy and most trans people in general. A passing white trans woman will hold privilege over a cis man of color in a lot of situations here in the west. Because it's not about men vs women it's about aligning with White Cisheteronormative Patriarchy and only the richest and palest of us can ever dream to wiggle into it in any manner that will last beyond like 5 seconds in very nische situations.

Trans people are more than just women with penises and men with vulvas so the further we get away from AFAB/AMAB and TMA/TME language the more the meadows will bloom and birds will sing and I'm so ready for it and non-binary people have been so ready and also dying inside for eons wanting to get there because it's not about our hormones or genitals it's that we're denying our government assigned boxes and doing so will never get us any substantial power over anyone that isn't heavily reliant on some other axis.

He's not a serial killer. He's not even really a killer (the only person he hands-on murders is Swansea in implied self defense). He's bitter, entitled, emotionally immature, impulsive, misogynistic, a rapist and enabled by Terminal Nice Guy Curly. Aka, a guy you've worked with, or a pissy uncle that keeps getting invited to christmas out of enforced politeness, your boyfriend's friend who keeps making you uncomfortable and you keep being told that he's a "good guy" deep down. A scumbag of which there are a dime a dozen of.

Any readings that he was a machivallian evil mastermind to me feels like huffing cope. Because the entire game is just Jimmy fuckign, floudering, as his actions suddenly have a lot of consequences that he wasn't emotionally equipped for. He thinks he can fix things, and that it's not really his fault, sure he assaulted Anya but she wasn't supposed to get pregnant from it, sure he crashed the ship in a temper tantrum but he didn't think Curly would get meatified from it. He sends Daisuke into the hutch because he's too much of a coward to do it himself, but he wasn't supposed to get injured from it. Yeah he's treated Anya like shit but she wasn't supposed to kill herself. Swansea comes after him with an axe — that wasn't supposed to happen either. And at the very end, Jimmy martyrs himself to "save" Curly (how saved he gets from being turned into a cryofrozen treat is debatable but I like to think it does ensure his survival, for the themes), so he can have some fucking solace that he managed to set things right before he kills himself — when in actuality all he did was ensure that he will run from taking responsibility for the rest of time.

After all, no one can hold you accountable if you're dead.

Jimmy isn't evil, you the player would be much more comfortable with his character if he WAS evil. He's just pathetic, making excuses, and emotionally lashing out, lashing out over the trauma he inflicted on someone else having consequences for him he sees no obvious escape from for once. Curly can't nepo him outa this one, lads. And all it takes is a few button presses to doom the entire ship.

Then he doesn't even have the guts to own it. He doesn't have the guts to own what a shitty person he is, called out directly in-text by Swansea who like we stan Swansea but I would not be surprised if his list of crimes (minus ship-crashing) looked exactly like Jimmy's, sexual assault included.

And that's the whole point of Mouthwashing innit. The worst guys you know will be some dick who refuses to own up to his own scumbaggery because he can't stand to look himself in the mirror if he does, and the people who cover for him. Evil doesn't exist (the contexts for where I think it does is a different and politically loaded conversation), usually it's just Some Fucking Guy who thought he was too good for therapy and magikarp splashed his path of carnage through other people's lives because of it.

Jimmy could have set things right, but that meant grappling with what a shitbag he is and the damage he caused Anya, and for certain people embittered by their own mediocrity, Armageddon is just the much more glamorous option.

And when he's forced to pick up the pieces and take responsibility, he breaks. Despite how much we hate it, it's very easy in this world to become a Jimmy, to fuck up and hurt people and then just go nuh-uh-nuh-uh until we've convinced ourselves we really did nothing wrong; to brainwash ourselves into thinking running away from accountability is the noble action. Even easier to become a Curly, with a pet Jimmy scrambling around that you can't be fucked to hold accountable because that's like, so messy, and a bother, it's fine, he's just a little grouchy you guys. Yes yes Anya I hear your concerns but like... I dunno, this puts me in a really complicated situation, you understand?

People know this instinctively, and that's why they feel like they have to parade Jimmy around like the Worst Guy Ever, to wash their hands of him, since that's more soothing than thinking about how much of a Boring Regular Guy he actually is. A Boring Regular Guy you've got in your life right now who kind of puts you off but nobody is actively dealing with. You included.

That's probably a large part of why this game haunts people, and why Jimmy just gets under their skin so bad to call him like the most irredeemable guy ever. In a genre he shares with like the Mad Father himself and Sachiko the torture ghost from Corpse Party, or the lady from the Amnesia DLC, etc. etc. (Astarion BG3 is also Objectively a shittier guy than Jimmy Mouthwashing, which isn't a fair comparison because different genres with different stakes, but it is a funny one.)

Towa especially is pretty detached to a degree that almost becomes comical. The closest he gets to being romantically invested I'd argue is with fucking Madrame. Because ofc that's how his brain would operate. Otherwise he's just like "yeah ig we can hang and do monogamy if ur gonna be this into me." and the narrative is so real for never making a problem out of it. Or maybe it does bring attention to it at the end of lawyer guy's route buuut Iiii haven't finished that yet ooooopppsss. In so much romance media, one party never dropping the "I love you" would be framed as a Problem milked for Angst which always makes me shrivel and die a bit, so it's soothing when these twinks are never vilified for being romantically unavailable on an emotional level.

Aoba meanwhile i dont think is ace i just think he's kind of a no-homo brained bimbo. Oh no Clear's dying wish is that i get bouncing on that dick, guess i have to!! Oh wow gee, Noiz feels nothing in the body? I'm bouta disprove that big time, get your peanits out brother and we will see about those nerve endings!! My dog is a man in my brain who wants to boink me? Well I'll be darned can't argue with that--

Jag är oftast en väldigt fredlig själ men vad gäller flugor så är det krig

>At least two grunts are scared of him (musharna being able to spook them off with visions of being scolded by Ghetsis)

>His speeches does in fact convince some people to release their pokémon or at least second-guess their view on the trainer-pokémon relationship

>Tells the grunts to give Bianca's Munna back

>Persuasive enough to essentially wiggle some of his Guys out of arrest in Driftveil, even if Clay does it reluctantly

>Knows Reshiram and Zekrom would not fuck with him so he picks up a miracle child from the forest to do it for him instead. Raises said child kind of like his own but also kind of not, there's a deliberate distance put between them

>Did make this wonderchild who can speak to pokémon and are clearly very empathetic towards them hang out with pokémon who had been mistreated for the purpose of instilling an ideology in him.

>Randomly has 3 ninjas who are just ride or die until the end of time for some reason

>Lots of team plasma is ride or die for him actually, otherwise Neo Team Plasma wouldn't have been a thing

>He rubs the death of Alder's partner pokémon in the mans face. All cheeky beaky like. Because he can.

>He will tell the teenager his Adopted I Swear Not Related Promise son is fixated on as a rival all about how he basically groomed say son into doing all of this dragon bullshit while having them cornered on a bridge. Then just casually walks off. His ninjas are there too.

>Will also happily tell said teenager they probably aren't that special or chosen or whatever, lol lmao, seems like ur dragon haven't woken up yet, dw maybe it will, lol.

>Cannot take an L to save his fucking life. Will lash out at everything and everyone around him and build a stupid airship with a stupid laser powered by the crinkly old grandpa of the dragon trio and do a terrorism before taking an L

>Refers to himself as being PERFECT while inhaling massive amounts of copium

>Needs a cane in bw2 and is only ever seen using one of his hands, so probably physically disabled to some degree

>Strong enough to jam the butt of that cane into the solid frozen earth of a cave. Probably just kind of a visual metaphor for him being threatening but also Hear Me Out What If He's Fucking Built-

>N is ride or die for him enough to still try and get through to him during the bw2 climax despite having been utilized as a silly little pawn yet again. This does not work, because as previously mentioned, man just cannot take that L

>When faced with literally no other option but to take an L, he passes out. His ninja squad punctuates this with him probably not being a threat anymore.

Ghetsis interpertation:

I think all of these things weave together into just a very fascinating person when you look at them a little deeper. Someone who's clearly charismatic enough to acquire that much loyalty, love, and fear — but also not equipped to handle the shame of failure in the god damn slightest. When threatened he devolves from a calculated cult leader above it all to a snarling animal fighting for its life, because he's probably rotted away behind a mask of perfectionism for years rather than done any significant growth as a person. He's clearly intelligent, probably highly emotionally intelligent because if he wasn't he wouldn't be able to pull this shit, but all of that shatters and breaks and splinters with one (1) crucial failure. He tries to recuperate but can't, the survival instinct is breathing down his neck because to him the shame of being a human like the rest of them rather than the perfect ideal he's been forging is scarier than anything that could actually physically kill him. He blames N, he blames MC, Colress, just about anyone and anything that doesn't end up pointing back to his own shortcomings.

And still! N probably loves him! And it's probably genuine! He wants to connect with him and breach that gap and give him ibuprofen because even if he's shown himself to be cringe, that's still his father, which is something he values enough to try and hold on to. And the ninja guys remain ride or die, so there's clearly something to him other than schemes and trickery, something genuine and beautiful that might not in practice be worth fighting for but it sure feels like it.

A beautiful man who's warped himself into a demon because he couldn't stand his own humanity because he's probably autistic and traumatized from his undefined childhood, and when he's beat down, rather than taking that L at long last, he'll curl up in his little cage, continue to snarl and tell himself over and over that this is what he is. What he will always be. He couldn't become god so he resigns to dying a devil. Because even still, that is preferable to him over taking that L, admitting to himself he is just a little guy like other little guys with problems he couldn't cope with, and that it caused hurt and destruction.

Devils don't feel regret or shame, humans do. And he'd have a loooot of that to chug through if he decided to face it. So he won't.

AI knows how to render like a beast but it's severely lacking in skills when it comes to image composition. Elements present in an AI piece rarely harmonize, they are not put there as part of an intentional scene, merely collaged in to fulfill whatever prompt was put into the machine. If you prompt an AI image generator with "Mushroom fairy in a forest" the machine will search through its database to diffuse something which checks off the correct labels while looking technically impressive; but it will not add any context or interiority to the scene. Basically; nothing visualized will have a reason for existing other than to fill a quota, which makes for an uninteresting and bad illustration.

This is something that isn't unique of AI, beginner artists operate in a similar manner, since composing a compelling narrative within a scene or a character design or abstract mural or what have you is its own skill-set that you have to learn. Where AI differs is this steep skill difference that clashes against itself. A technically lacking drawing of a sparkledog on DA is internally consistent, the composition is kinda ass the linework is kinda ass the colors and shading is all kinda ass, adding up to an earnest effort that still has charm because you can tell this was made by a 13 yr old doing their best with GIMP or MS Paint, you can tell that they probably like dogs and rainbows and theorize that they will get themselves some neopronouns in like 10 years. There was probably more the artist wanted to say with the piece but they lacked the skill to communicate it any deeper than "here is my rainbow dog oc that is half angel", give them 5 years and intent will start to materialize.

Enter an AI Generated sparkledog sourced from data scraped off the internet. The rendering is detailed and beautiful and there's a background and complex lighting but none of these things still say anything more than "here is my rainbow dog oc that is half angel", that is where the clash happens. Since the technical skill is so high, we look for depth, we look for intent, we look for artistic choices but there are none present. Even if a prompter wanted the AI generator to express something more specific, the amount of re-rolls needed to get even close to what whatever that is are plentiful and will still yield something very surface-level. You can probably make the dog look sad or angry, but it's going to be difficult (if not impossible) to make the dog look divorced or gay repressed or so distraught all of their brain synapses stopped working. That is what this vague sense that AI art lacks ~soul~ is, the machine simply isn't competent in visual communication deeper than a kiddy-pool, nor do I think it can be since it doesn't have its own interiority to begin with, which is what you need to pull from to develop this skill yourself as an artist. What you like, why you like it, what it means to you, learning how to put that on a canvas is integral for a compelling illustration.

Because I will simply say it; some human people artists are also very technically good, but can't communicate for shit. Sakimichan is my go-to example for this, her art is Very Rendered, she is good at Rendering and Anatomy but to me her art is still mid since she prioritizes conventional attractiveness above all else in her pin-ups. This is allowed, of course, and it gets her the patreon moneys, get that bag, but it is also kind of just slop. A lot of glossy anime people artists have a similar thing going on, which unfortunately makes them harder to distinguish from the output of AI Generators. Mind you, I can usually tell the difference, because there's still a lot of intent that goes into these pin-up pieces (choice of lighting, what to render/fade into the background, what kind of background would be best, color, outfit, which material textures to emphasize etc. etc. etc.) that AI still doesn't have since it's only concerned with aligning with the prompts, but it's way more subtle and lots of normies can't pick up on it, I can't pick up on it either all the time.

Similar things can be said about AI Writing, AI Music and AI Graphic design, it boils down to AI Generators not having any desire nor ability to add their own input, only replicate whatever elements are shoved into their database and align it best they can with whatever prompts gets typed in; which makes for sparkly products that remain terminally mid at best. Sometimes "Mid" is what the people want unfortunately which is why Pinterest is full of AI slop —but people interested in compelling art will gravitate towards it. The first step to making compelling art is meditating on what you want out of it to begin with, a shortcut is to make shameless fetish-art catered to you and you alone because it's gonna make you confront the things that you want to hide from people, and meditate on if maybe you should start shoving it in their faces instead. The sfw version would be other visual interests or fixations that foster this sense of shame or fear of judgement. AI generally veers conventional across axises, it always looks exactly like you'd expect it to because it's composed of such a big melting pot, so if you want to carve a space out for yourself where AI can't touch you just figure out the niche specific things your heart wants, and draw that, and get really good at drawing that.

AI Art is the fast fashion of illustration, basically, it's just cyberwaste instead of landfill-fodder and I do think AI technology utilizes slightly less slave labor (key word: think), not a fully consistent analogy but it is the gist. Which I have my own more-nuanced-than-average onions on fast fashion but that's for later, or never. if i feel like it.