Things and Stuff

but i have to say, it is so wild how often i see people's criticisms frame jax as a character who is babied and whose actions are entirely justified by the narrative, when that... really could not be further from the truth? jax is called out for being an asshole pretty much literally every episode (episode 3 and 4, for example, both have her be actually physically restrained for it lol). Sure, the story definitely sympathizes with her, that is true, but sympathy is not condonement, and it would be clear to anyone who is paying attention to the show that the narrative condemns jax's actions and the way she treats others

its clear to me that a lot of this is just said to paint gooseworx as a misogynistic abuse apologist, with some saying the quiet part out loud and outright saying thats what they think she is in real life. All because she said jax is a character that she relates to and thinks it's how she could've turned out had things gone way worse for her...? Since when is it a moral failing to explore a hypothetical version of yourself that turned out way, way worse than you did in a story you're writing?

Following many hints in previous episodes, including but not limited to:

Jax writing "I don't care" on a nametag instead of an actual name,

Him claiming his ears and tail are the "pinnacle of masculinity," only for Pomni to point out he lacks a tail,

Zooble (the canon nonbinary character) saying that they thought Jax would be "into" wearing a dress,

The series creator later saying he was upset about wearing that dress because he "wasn't ready to ask those questions about himself," along with him in a merch ad admitting in his mind that he looks cute in the dress,

Jax referring to himself as "an egg that needs to be cracked open,"

Him snarkily implying that he is jealous of Zooble's ability to change their own body and finds it stupid that they hate it,

His room being colored in extremely pink and girly colors, except for the blue carpet surrounding a pink rug, the exact colors of the trans flag,

We then enter Episode 9. In a flashback, Jax tells Ribbit that his mother projected gender roles onto him and then punished him for it– if he was emotional, he wasn't enough of a man, and if he lashed out, he was just as bad as his dad. He then admitted something "deep and personal" to her that he thought would make her stop enforcing these gender roles onto him. What he said then made his mother laugh at him, and then berate him with deeply personal insults, and then hug him. When he doesn't say what the personal secret was, Ribbit (who is word-of-God confirmed she/they) then puts a hairbow on him– a character who relies heavily on cartoon stereotypes as a coping mechanism, when cartoons making female characters by sticking "a little red bow on the pre-existing design" is a stereotype everyone knows about– and says his secret is "safe with her."

When approached by a male friend, Jax throws the hairbow to the ground, begins to panic, and threatens Ribbit to "never tell anyone," then cuts her out of his life out of fear and repression. In his mindscape he refers to wearing the maid dress as "getting freaky with gender." Pomni finds his consciousness under a pink-lit lamppost and they play a montage of his previous scenes to the song "Isn't She Lovely?", which is about the birth of a daughter. Static appears multiple times in Jax's mindscape, a potential reference to I Saw the TV Glow, a movie about a heavily-implied trans woman repressing herself.

Putting ALL OF THAT TOGETHER. This is a two-piece puzzle. Jax is transfem and terrified to admit it. Just because s/he was not brave enough to say it aloud and Pomni/Caine did not out them to the other characters– and Jax's human form is not obviously Out in a Red State in 2017, Trump's first term– does not mean it's not canon. Leeroy is 22 and still figuring themself out, and is shown with longer hair, alt clothes, and going to Zooble's (canonically confirmed, if you read the article) queer bar. The creator of this show is a trans woman. This is not something that's hard to figure out.

"Does this mean Glitch is telling trans women to kill themselves–" NOOO!! Jax repressed himself to the point of abstraction, then Pomni finds a way to reach him even through his broken mental state, and the gang puts him in a safe and comfortable blanket fort where s/he can relax and get his senses back in order without hurting himself or others. The other abstractions get to be seen being happy and at peace. No, it's not IDEAL, but it's basically like having a mental break that just needs some care and attention instead of Cellar. We do not see any Abstractions get fixed but the episode does leave it open-ended as to how much they will one day be able to be reached, and the characters have eternity to figure it out. Jax finally opens up to Pomni in that headspace and it's far from impossible she can still talk to him in this state.

The way I see it, there's now two readings going forwards:

First reading is the optimistic one: Pomni was getting through to Jax, she only got kicked out because of the flashbang. Now that they're not just sticking the abstractions in a cellar, and they have Jax in a comfortable and enclosed space to calm down and figure things out, it's not impossible she will pull through once she realizes she is deserving of love. And also when she drinks enough respecting women juice to realize that she is a woman and thus she has to respect herself.

Second reading is the one of abstractions being irreversible. And it's that Jax is a tragedy, but her human self does not have to be. Jax repressed herself to death/insanity because she could not reconcile her own gender with her perception of the world NOR could she accept that even as a terrible person she was still deserving of a future, of the ability to grow and change, and the ability to be loved. She died regretting that she'd driven all her friends away and made the world worse for so many people. But Leeroy is still out there. In the real world, Leeroy accepted help and is figuring herself out. She has a job and a friend group and is visiting a queer bar! In one world, Jax was trapped and fell into a horrible coping mechanism that hurt others and herself, and it killed her. In the real world, Leeroy was offered help and took it, and it's what saved her. And even with the idea of losing Jax, there is still a future for Leeroy, and that's where the hope comes in.

It's also not like Jax is the only trans/queer character. Zooble is nonbinary and makes it through the entire show, is given emotional depth and weight to their own dysphoria and character struggles, and then gets to end the show with their human self opening a successful queer bar and their digital self having epic gay sex!! (entire theater cheered and clapped at that btw)

In conclusion,

I dropped out and now I study Environmental Sciences

When environmental writers talk about "Overpopulation" I realize they have not studied History and I am afraid

I urge everyone to challenge and criticize the notion of "Overpopulation" whenever and wherever it appears.

As the video in the above link simply and elegantly illustrates, human population increased dramatically in the 20th century simply because fewer people were dying at young ages. For most of human history, half of humans died in childhood, and many humans died much younger than the modern life expectancy. In order to keep the population steady, human families had to have enough children so that on average, a pair of two humans would have two children (enough to replace themselves) survive long enough to successfully have their own kids.

Without modern medicine, half of children will die in childhood, so if you want 2 kids to grow up and have kids of their own, better have at least four. And in a world where an infected cut or a bad illness can easily kill you, even people who survive to adulthood might not live to become parents themselves, so better make it five. But as with the modern world, not everybody will have children, so six is a better number, given that a certain share of people may be infertile or run off and become a monk. And you might of course be particularly unlucky with any of the above, so better make it seven.

Of course, people weren't consciously thinking about the replacement rate thing, but I reckon cultural ideas about family size have this kind of math going on under the hood.

The exponential population increase of the 20th century happened because of an unavoidable lag in cultural changes after the change in death rate. People didn't know their kids would survive childhood at higher rates until the kids did survive childhood.

There is no possible way we can significantly decrease the human population within the next 50 or even 100 years without killing people. Why? Because most people who are 20 right now will still be alive in 50 years, assuming life expectancy follows current trends. Birth rates have already declined very dramatically in most areas of the world. This shows that humans are actually pretty damn good at self-regulating their population. It's just that the decline in death rate was relatively sudden and unprecedented, and humans couldn't respond to it until it had already occurred.

Areas that still have high birth rates, have little access to birth control and relatively high childhood death rates. The simple solution is to make health care and family planning safely and easily available for all people.

I think the video illustrates something that is particularly important to notice: WHICH populations are expected to grow. Africa grows the most. The countries that benefited first from lowered death rates—wealthy colonizing countries—have already re-adjusted their birth rates, so they don't grow. White skinned folks will soon be far outnumbered. Hmmmmm...why would we be concerned about this?

To illustrate why the overpopulation argument is so terrifying, here is a little excerpt from the book "Every Living Thing: The Politics of Life in Common" by Jenell Johnson. Trigger warning for genocide and discussion of Nazi ideology (what a surprise...not)

This very blatant and disgusting display of ecofascism being quoted and discussed is obvious, but I fear the concept of "Overpopulation" makes ecofascism acceptable in ways that are perhaps not so obvious.

I believe that every time we say: "Humans' impact on the earth is so terrible!" "Nature would be better off without humans destroying it." "Our species has had a devastating impact on this planet!" "Maybe nature will heal when humans go extinct." "Humans do nothing but kill and destroy everything." We are softening our world slightly more to the evil and abhorrent ideologies in these pages.

What would it look like, if "humans" were held accountable for the damage to the Earth? Do you think every human would be "held accountable" equally? Who do you think would be "held accountable" first? Who most likely dies when there are heat waves, floods, and tornadoes? Who cannot evacuate? Who loses everything, having no external store of capital outside of their home?

False: the human population will increase its burden on the Earth on top of increasing in size

Let's look JUST at the continent with the biggest projected population growth. African countries are on the leading edge of eco-friendly design of high-density environments. They're resurrecting sidelined farming techniques to stop environmental degradation. They're investing in high-tech AND low-tech methods to improve quality of living without overtaxing the environment.

It's obvious to EVERYONE that our current consumption levels aren't sustainable, and we are actively working to stop the damage! No one person can overhaul a city's infrastructure on their own, but they CAN advocate locally for better water retention, native flora, renewable energy, reduced light pollution, local food sources, mass transit - and on and on and on!

Punk is being/supporting whatever the state currently fucking despises and wants to burn off the face of the earth, not whatever you think is Punk Aesthetic. If you wanna be punk just to look like you were born in the 80s instead of actually BEING PUNK by supporting the degenerates and the freaks and the sex workers and the BIPOC and the transsexuals and the faggots and the dykes, burn your fucking $800 corp bought leather jacket because you're not Hobie Brown you're just a fucking poser.