Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 1)

[Taco Bell Tower]

Cheetah wins because of Chester the Cheetah and Cheetor.

[ClothedMac]

Anybody know some good conspiracy forums that are fun to read?

Are you looking for funny ha-ha? Or funny "Dear God. I weep for thee?"

Literal schizos and tinfoil hatters. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Gangstalking/

Zeliard down somewhere.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/medicaid-is-fully-frozen-in-all-50-states-72-million-affected-see-threadmark.1093959/page-12#post-134997228

https://www.resetera.com/threads/medicaid-is-fully-frozen-in-all-50-states-72-million-affected-see-threadmark.1093959/page-11#post-134995344

  Misogynistic rhetoric (3 days)

Let's do the smart thing and stop pretending that the primary demographic whose votes Bernie Sanders did not earn aren't about to be hit the hardest by all the fuckshit that's happening now.
Like seriously? Right now? Of all days. Bernie Sanders.

Who's your preferred candidate? This weird italicized shit is bizarre.
Yeah.
Bernie Sanders.
You know, as opposed to the dumb centrist cunts we've had as major Democratic candidates for the past five decades. But I guess they're preferable, cause they're not Bernie Sanders.
The fuck?

The Bernie Sanders who claims to have marched with MLK Jr.  Miss me with that, y'all


https://thebore.net/forum/newreply.php?tid=336&replyto=110168

https://www.resetera.com/threads/medicaid-is-fully-frozen-in-all-50-states-72-million-affected-see-threadmark.1093959/page-11#post-134994654

At the pharmacy stocking up on scripts.
Doing a Teladoc appointment for my sore throat before 5pm.
Basically disaster-scenario planning over here.

Gotta make sure he has his 7-drug cocktail

That's a good call.  I'll also dust off my Ambien Rx incase drugs become currency in the future. 

I'm an old GenX'er that was raised by their grandparents. There was no way I was getting out of working as a kid. Both my grandparents worked on farms when they were way younger than I was when they said I needed to get some kind of job for the summer. I will tell you after helping some of my families friends on their farms, I was glad to be bagging groceries in the air conditioning.

mine was working for subway, creating sandwich art 

I worked at a upscale artisanal deli named Meritage with the hottest waitresses a teen boy could conceive of.  I think one of them was the first in town to get a tramp stamp.  

[Boredfrom]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/redlettermedia-ot-very-cruel.804/page-336

I forgot about it until they brought it up, but I'm so glad that stupid Star Trek Legacy thing died. I think I would have stopped watching Star Trek at that point.-

Not real opinion about the shit film they reviewed:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_trek_section_31

One of the worst posters of the RLM thread and nobody dares to call them out.

[Steven Snell]

I'm tired ™

[Gameboy Nostalgia]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/doomsday-clock-moves-one-second-forward-to-89-seconds-to-midnight-its-closest-ever-to-annihilation.1094376/

Doomsday clock moves one second forward to 89 seconds to midnight, its closest ever to annihilation
Doomsday clock moves one second forward to 89 seconds to midnight, creating the perfect clickbait for Era

[garamonde]

Also they're in trouble for using AI:

[Propagandhim]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-see-a-big-weird-logic-loop-in-political-analysis-dems-losing-rural-and-blue-collar-yet-these-folks-keep-voting-republican-as-things-get-worse.1090782/page-2

want to look at macro trends here. This is also not the absolve the Democratic Party leadership. There's much blame to go around.

In the MSM, there's this obsession with the WWC (White Working Class) voter. You see these think pieces going to these small rural diners, trying to get the pulse of "America". This whole circus happens every Presidential cycle. The coverage itself is fine, but the obsession with these folks is something the MSM just loves to cover. It's a deeper topic than this thread.

But one thing I do notice is that many of these places are mostly red or deep red. Many have grievances, that the GOP knows how to take advantage of, but they essentially keep voting red. Again, I know the Dem leadership has been bad at messaging to these folks. But it seems every cycle these folks complain about the state of the country, yet vote red completely and downballot. Isn't that definition of insanity?

And of late, with some real consequences coming to these folks via Trump EOs, it seems they never wake up.

Most recently, we saw farmers take bath on tariffs in the previous Trump admin, but they overwhelming supported him again. And he's going really hurt with the upcoming tariffs and immigration push.

Yes, I know the Dems can do better. It's a gerontrancy at the highest level of leadership there, etc. But with a voting populace this stubborn, it seems like skating uphill.

It's cultural.

Centuries of these people's ancestors having directly or indirectly colonized other human beings for profit and social supremacy, and never having to actually face a meaningful reckoning with it- internally or externally- means you inevitably end up with a population that is predisposed to continue thinking in extremely insular and defensive ways, even if it's to their own detriment and well-being, because who the fuck are you to tell the bestest, smartest, most civilized and most powerful race on Earth otherwise?

While there is something to be said about how we should tend with the local conditions of people's unique communities, and that trying to roll up as some college-educated savior will- and should- get you kicked to the curb by any community burdened with your ego, we must also reckon with the fact that white people just simply think they are better than anyone else, and there's very little you can do in the short-term to break them out of that.

Centuries of these people's ancestors having directly or indirectly colonized other human beings for profit and social supremacy, and never having to actually face a meaningful reckoning with it- internally or externally-

You see, it's cultural.  Each white man has an internal recorded memory whether in his mind or out of it.  His ancestors, whether by direct or indirect relation has climbed the *uses finger air quotes* ladder, whether metaphorically speaking (the ladder of the mind) or metaphysically speaking (the ladder of the heart).  Could be both, too.   And when they're on that ladder, they either go up or down, ontologically speaking. That isn't the point.  The point is, whether they go up or down, they have all decided to kick that ladder after they get up because they're thinking, "My race is the smartest.  maaaaaaaaan i wanna own some slaves, no for real I could srsly use some fkn slaves rn", at all times.   Sometimes you just wanna get on TV and just let loose, but can't, but it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose.  Think about it.  Don't be fooled, it's cultural for them to think about black people 24/7, they're crazy, they think about race non-stop.  And whether that race is internal (dna, blood, the globs of cum both in AND out of the so-called cock) or external (the race of the mind, the race against time, the race out of the convention because she's looking for her money and I don't have it, Look, I'm good for it I just don't have it right now) we can't break them out of the spell (metaphor fantazioly speaking).  Let me reiterate that thinking about race 24/7, you inevitably end up predisposed to continue thinking in extremely insular and defensive ways, even if it's to their own detriment and well-being.  Dont ever let that happen.

[DavidCroquet]

First they came for... and I did not speak out...

gender-firming care for miners.

"Be straight with me doc, can you get me to 12 inches and double my testicular circumference before I head back to the quarry?"
"Sorry son, president says no"

[ClothedMac]

 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/hudson-thames-peter-parker-spider-man-on-%E2%80%98your-friendly-neighborhood-spider-man%E2%80%99-%E2%80%9Cmy-biggest-fear-was-that-it-was-gonna-be-annoying-and-woke%E2%80%9D.1093830/page-6#post-135010182

[DavidCroquet]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/medicaid-is-fully-frozen-in-all-50-states-72-million-affected-see-threadmark.1093959/page-14#post-135003765

Can we please stop derailing the thread? People are literally worried about losing their health insurance.

To be fair, people were worried about this kind of thing before the election as well. But who has time for such details!

[kaleidoscopium]

Conservatives think they're smarter on this topic than people who earned their PhD by researching it. Insufferable.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/trump-signs-eo-banning-under-19-gender-affirming-care.1094301/page-2#post-135004776

Like earlier in the thread when Kyuuji and others derided the Cass Report?

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-see-a-big-weird-logic-loop-in-political-analysis-dems-losing-rural-and-blue-collar-yet-these-folks-keep-voting-republican-as-things-get-worse.1090782/page-2

we must also reckon with the fact that white people just simply think they are better than anyone else, and there's very little you can do in the short-term to break them out of that.

We should listen, she's an expert on this.

[benji]

Centuries of these people's ancestors having directly or indirectly colonized other human beings for profit and social supremacy, and never having to actually face a meaningful reckoning with it- internally or externally-

She's so vague all the time. Is she thinking of something like this for every white person on the planet?

[Besticus Maximus]

My ancestors were dying down coal miles or of communicable disease in peasant hovels, tbf

[Polident]

It’s amazing. There’s a complete lack of introspection from these guys. Their political and cultural insight couldn’t be worse. It’s the Jim Cramer thing, where you’re better served doing the inverse of what he says. Keep going. It’s worked out great so far.

[benji]

I went looking for the post where she says that "reckoning" would be centuries of slavery for white people. Found this instead from 2020, it's probably a good primer on her seething narcissist self-importance: https://www.resetera.com/threads/are-all-white-people-racist.184470/page-4#post-31268580

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

*(breathes in)*

*(breathes out)*

Alright kids, let's talk about how ideas spread. Marketing and advertising, propaganda, philosophy, whatever. Let's just start with this.

We can all acknowledge the fact that exposure to concepts will inevitably result in an individual being at least subconsciously aware of those concepts. Whether it's the fact that advertising is even a thing that, you know, works, the numerous stories of family members being lost to the Fox News or alt-right pipeline, the fast spread of memes, or even that "representation matters" because seeing folks on screen allows for the formation of even basic parasocial relationships which in turn fosters empathy for outgroups, I think you would be hard-pressed to argue against the fact that "continuous exposure to information makes a human being more susceptible to absorbing that information."

Now let's talk about demographic spread, or like, how folks kinda congregate and live with each other.

Taking data from the US Census Bureau from it's 2013-2017 American Community Survey, black and white segregation has... not actually moved all that much since the beginning of the century, with a dissimilarity index around 70 on average. White people, largely, keep to themselves, while black people do so as well but are seeing more integration with Hispanic/Latinx populations (howdy y'all). This is due to many factors regarding economics and business and culture and all that good shtuff I don't feel like talking about while I'm absolutely starving right now. But yeah, that's just another fact. White people largely still keep to themselves, and it really wouldn't be out of the question to call America segregated in all but law.

Okay. Do we agree on these two things as, like, facts? Advertising works, and America's population tends to cluster by race?

Good.

Alright.

NOW We can talk about racism.

Because racism is not just a conscious belief? It's like a spectrum of thoughts and behaviors, big ones and small ones, to varying degrees of consciousness where the outcome is inevitably a disdain or distrust of another race. And the sad fact is, America (and by extension Europe; you all started this mess) has done a bang-up job of putting out a shitload of propaganda both about the inferiority of black and brown people and the superiority of white people for centuries. The glossing over of native genocide as "manifest destiny," the fact that you all thought it was a good idea to allow confederates to rewrite history, the continuous hostility to black and brown protest, the awkward consumption of black and brown media that results in erasure, the outright conscious efforts to just outright write scientists, politicians, artists out of history, the fact that white people literally took one of the most inspiring Biblical figures from the Middle East and began to depict him as a white dude when... he couldn't have been white? The police in general..... Oh, Zwarte Piet; can't forget that! The Mounties committing genocide against the natives under Trudeau's watch.... Hell, Trudeau's blackface.

I mean, I literally don't think I have the character count to just go on about how much stuff, how much information, how much propaganda, has existed and continues to exist about how black and brown folks just ain't shit compared to white people.

But even if you're conscious of its existence and work to bat those nasty thoughts away... it doesn't mean the programming isn't working, hasn't already worked. If it takes seven viewings of an advertisement for you to remember a product, even subconsciously, you cannot dismiss centuries of cultural advertising. Especially when you are without the means to actively combat it. Because let's be honest, white people are fucking terrible at uprooting and getting rid of racism! And I can say that with confidence because in 400 years of undisputed rule in America the best you could do in 2016 is elect Donald Trump.... Donald Trump. You all chose to do that.

You largely don't live around black and brown people- the last Census says so- so the most exposure you get to us, if any, is through the media and forums like this one. But some tenuous viewings of Black Panther and readings of my posts can't compete with the fact that white people live and work around white people 24/7, who have been inundated across generations that they are the best, and it's an indoctrination that has been passively allowed to happen. Those pictures of white folks screaming at Civil Rights protestors, the lynchings, the concentration camps?

I mean, think about it. Those people were never arrested. Never punished. Never admonished. Most of them weren't even publicly named. They were allowed to go on and continue living their lives without having to confront the fact that they were, indeed, the baddies. It simply became something you couldn't talk about openly. You couldn't "tell it like it is." But that didn't mean they weren't spouting it around the house, on the job, at the dinner table. It didn't mean they weren't distrusting of the few black and brown folks they saw at the store, or on the corner, or on TV. That's why you still have shitty family members at holiday gatherings. Because there aren't any consequences for white supremacist thought, not really. There's always a place to go to stew in it to some degree, or to at least never confront it.

It's also why most people don't confront said shitty family members. It's not a big deal to you. The effects of white supremacy have worked on you too, and thus it's much more easier to let Uncle Bob spew his shit about the wall again than to actually take a meaningful dive into anti-racism. And even aggressive anti-racists like Tim Wise, those who come along once in a blue moon, still slip up once in awhile and let the message take over.

I say all this to say this: The thought that there is any white person on Earth where colonialism has touched that has not been susceptible to white supremacist thinking is laughable. The question is not "Are all white people racist?" The question should be "When are white people going to step up and actually work towards making a more equitable world?"

.... I'm going to go get food and pour one out for my mentions.

I just think there's a wider response globally and perhaps it's time to focus on solutions instead of problems being pointed out, which hasn't appeared to have made much impact thus far in the history of the world or USA.

The only reason we keep having "conversations" is because white people don't want to implement the solutions that black and brown people have been giving you for centuries. In 400 years of "whiteness" being a concept, we have basically had to drag you all kicking and screaming towards some nebulous end of "anti-racism," and even when we achieve some measureable milestone, whether it be abolition, or civil rights, or putting body cameras on police, or having you all not dress in blackface for your winter parades, it is almost inevitably set back by the continuance of white supremacy in other forms and ways allowable by law, or by "white lashes" such as the election of fascist figures all throughout the world in the last few years.

Reparations, affirmative action, dismantling the police, waiving both personal and national debt (hey France, stop fucking over Haiti m'kay?), actually deplatforming the alt-right, recognizing the sovereignty of natives, taking down confederate iconography, just not fucking voting for right-wing parties. There's plenty of solutions to combat racism. Nothing I've said in this thread is new, just regurgitated thoughts from more daring trailblazers and writers packaged up for you all. Black and brown people have had the conversation, and given you the solutions.

So again, the question is when are you all going to do something about it? My honest guess is never, because you simply have no incentive to do so.

The solution isn't easy and I don't pretend to have any start to answer that but calling all white people racist isn't a great start to that and it's just finger point the problem in place of workable solutions.

You don't have to pretend to have an answer, because black and brown people have done the thinking for you. There's tons of written and video content out there on what to do to get the ball rolling on dismantling white supremacy the world over, as well as plenty of organizations to join if that's your bag. In general, all white people have to do is implement the solutions that have been sitting there free of charge.

But that would mean admitting there is a problem and checking your ego at the door, instead of obfuscating the point and kicking the can down the road since the status quo is just so darn cozy. Because you can tell me you hire for diversity. You can tell me you teach your children right.

And yet you're in here pretending like conversations still need to happen, blaming Trump on minorities not outvoting 60% of the population, leaning into the falsehood the this is an American-centric problem, asking why I didn't put Latinos and Asians on blast, and ultimately not even actually trying to refute the propositions I put forth in that first post but still insisting that you are uncomfortable with me saying what I said.

Like, you're literally doing then thing I talked about in my first post and you don't even realize it.

The underlined part I take issue with. So I purposefully hire people that aren't just Aussie whites/mates, I teach my kids about world issues, we relish the opportunities for our kids to visit other countries or experience their culture locally but I still have to check my ego at the door? Why because I tell you we're not racist because we do those things?

It's because it's obvious that you're upset. You have made a number of deflections and have downplayed what I have said. You're continuously trying to shift the burden to others. You keep trying to prove to me you're one of the good ones. You literally aren't understanding that this defensive behavior- right here- is part of that "spectrum" of behaviors I talked about earlier, albeit more on the passive-aggressive end than the more aggressive end. It is a good thing that you are hiring Australian minorities, and it is good that you expose your children to other cultures. And yet despite all of that work, when a black American speaks about the systems of white supremacy that affect them the most, your answer included "Why aren't you talking about the Latinos and Asians, huh?!"

You literally just don't get it, and frankly I don't think there's anything I can say to better communicate to you the problem, which in itself is also a big issue. I don't know how to communicate my lived experience with someone who, by way of the forces of society, can not actually get a sense of how I live and how that lived experience informs my own philosophy. As I said, empathy is derived from exposure. But joke's on me. I can't expose white people to racism as felt by black people, no more than I can try to teach a dog about the number 5 when science has said dogs can only comprehend 4 instances of something, and anything beyond that is just "a lot."

Like, how the fuck do you break down the number 5? It's self-explanatory.

This is also why I say solving white supremacy is impossible, and it's why I've taken a hands-off approach in recent years in my life. It will persist long after I die, but the most I do is to fight for a better quality of life for myself. I don't need white people's approval to do what I want to do and be with who I wanna be with. So, take this as a victory. You've burnt me out.

I woke up and can't say I'm surprised at how this thread has gone...largely because it was going the same way when I was active. We're at the point now where the only way most people are willing to answer the question is to throw all other races into the mix to more easily absolve the horrible sinking feeling that being a good person is actually a really hard thing to do.

But I'm not going to address all that. My fellow minorities, specifically black folks, have once again done the work that they're not going to be rewarded with. I do want to talk about this silly notion going around because no one seems to have hit on it, and I definitely want to hit on it because I am THAT person.

The notion that you can't say "all" of white people in any context is silly for two reasons, those two reasons being metonymy and heritability.

Let's start with the first one because it's simple: Metonymy is just a fancy way of saying "using an encompassing concept to describe a wide spread phenomenon." And white supremacy- specifically white supremacy, not just "racial prejudice" to you non-Americans who continuously try to distance yourself from this (I see you, you Sassy Sues)- is a wide spread phenomenon.

For example, take the statement "America has an obesity problem." No one is going to really balk at this. Hell, many of you will take this as an opportunity to start ranting about the moral inferiority of the obese.

"America?! You're saying ALL Americans are obese?! You can't say that! I'M skinny!"

This is literally never the line of conversation because people can recognise that the use of "America" is meant to describe how wide-spread the phenomenon. Also, there is a degree of separation people have for their nationality, because it's something you can technically change or not feel as passionately about. Indeed I would say on a US-centric forum that leans left, feeling "American" is understandably not something to be overtly proud of because it carries with it certain connotations of horribleness considering what America continues to do to the world.

But race is different. Race is something that is biological (this is false, but let's go with it); it's something that's, like, apart of you in a way that can't be changed, and yet simultaneously it also has no bearing on your quality as a person. That's why racism is so bad! How can you apply this concept of metonymy to race?!

Easily, because of heritability. Shaun of Shaun and Jen talks about this at length in his episode about The Bell Curve, but if you don't want to watch two hours of video to get to the pertinent bit, here it is:

Heritability is not the passing of traits down between parents and off-spring. It is the rate of occurrence of a trait in any given population. That rate of occurrence can be due to anything, including social factors, and indeed heritability doesn't actually remark on the source for why a trait is the way it is. All it says is "this is a pattern in this population."

For example, if you have five of the same plant, and give all of them equal access to what they need to grow to 10 feet, (food, water, sunlight, etc.) and you see an equal distribution of this trait, tallness hitting 10 feet has 100% heritability. If you were to have taken one of the plants and given it shitty conditions, and it only grows to 5 feet, then heritability drops, not because of the biological potential of that plant to grow, but because of its worse environment.

If you're not a science denier and understand that heritability is a just a thing, and you agree that white supremacy is a world-wide phenomenon, then you actually have very little way of arguing out of the notion that all white people are racist to some degree. That widespread racism is NOT the result of genetic or biological factors, because race as a genetic phenomenon doesn't exist. Race is sociopolitical. So rest easy, white people; you're not born with a hate gene. You didn't literally inherit the sin. Instead, your ingrained dismissiveness of minorities is a result of social conditioning, namely the one that has said for centuries that white people are just better than everyone else just because they're white.

Which is actually great news for you because it means you can be a better person and fix the problem, in largely the same ways we try to tackle obesity as an American phenomenon.

Again, you are raised in this system whether you like it or not. It has colored your perceptions whether you like it or not. To deny this to make yourself feel better is not helping; indeed, it is the reason I still have to do so much work on this left-leaning forum in the first place. You all don't get it, and then inevitably post some nonsense I have to moderate.

And I can hear it now, because conversations about white culture (can we take a moment to recognize the irony of people from markedly different cultures and perspectives can still somehow consider themselves "white?" Huh. Odd how that works) always re-route to "what about the blacks and browns?" I know you're going to ask:

"Are you saying then it's fair for me to start talking about black criminals and smart Asians? These things can be heritable too!"

I'm sure a few of you are salivating at the chance to FINALLY "tell it like it is."

But I sure indeedly am not giving you that green light. You know why? Because you've been trained by white supremacy! Whenever a white person talks about Chicago's violence and they're actually not directly involved in the curtailing of those issues, do you think any black person listening is dumb enough to think that- deep down- this person doesn't think on some level that Chicago's crime is an inevitability because of some inherent genetic deficiency in black people to follow the law? Of course not. You know it, and I know it. And that's the difference.

By way of white supremacy, ethnic minorities possess a remarkable clarity to critique caste-based systems from a sociopolitical context, because to fight white supremacy you inevitably have to start with the notion that it doesn't exist as a scientific principle, if only to embolden your self-worth in a society that is always saying you're worth less than. This clarity is in turn countered by an amazing ignorance of white people to understand this fact because they are the ones on top of the food chain and are by default not victims to its horrors, and without any ability to attain true empathy, they default to what they have been trained to know as does anyone else when trying to comprehend something new. And the default belief of white supremacy is that the ills of the world are the result of non-white barbarians who are uncivilized by nature.

This is all nothing more than a belief system, like religion or traditional politics, which is why I am confident in attacking it this pointedly. It doesn't matter that your ancestors thought it was a nifty idea to tie the belief system to some vague notion of race in order to justify themselves, and that as a result you feel like I'm attacking you because of how you were physically born. You're not oppressed on the basis of whiteness; let's get that out of the way. Indeed, if you think I'm being harsh, you should try taking the advice of Urban Scholar and looking in on a typical dinner a politically-minded black family might have on a Sunday night. Content Warning before you do: It ain't pretty.

So what is it about racism that makes everyone want to immediately declare they aren't racist?

It's simple. Racism is something commonly considered both categorically evil and a conscious act of will.

White people don't want to be considered consciously evil, especially leftist ones.

So instead of coming to grips with the fact that they're not the heroes of this story (again, really hard to do when you've been raised in a system that says you are the hero as ordained by God), they instead deny and lash out.

I get your point here, but I don't think not being a racist means being a hero. I don't think either that every people who claims not to be a racist isn't one indeed. Yet I completly understand if someone not being a racist would deny it.

I am not talking about simply not being racist when I talk about hero narratives. I'm talking about the way white supremacy works. I'll make this quick because I have to go run an errand to my bank:

Whiteness is ultimately nothing. Like, literally nothing. It is not genetic, nor is it reasonably drawn upon ethnic or national lines. It's a nebulous philosophy at best that unites an arbitrary group of people against the rest of the world. You can also describe it as an antithesis. Whiteness is the absence of race. It is the absence of an easily-definable group. It is the absence of culture (that's why the Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Australians in here still know what it's like to be "white" before they know what it's like to be any of these other specific nationalistic identifiers). It's assimilative. That's literally what it was designed to do; to temper the horrors of colonialism and the Atlantic Slave trade by saying "Hey, random ass farmer dude; you deserve that land of yours because you're special. Science and God says so!"

Indeed, the best way to pave over uncomfortable truths is with hero narratives. Look at how almost all superhero movies have climaxes that pave the way to a good outcome through violence while at the same time black people can't even protest on the DA's front lawn. White people REALLY love hero narratives to an absurdly unhealthy degree. If that whole "manifest destiny" thing didn't prove it, and if Fox News talking about how black people were "the losers" and need to "get over it" didn't do it for you, there's this weird fascination you all have with ancestry that doesn't align with how black folks experience it.

I'm gonna get very anecdotal here, but hear me out in this example: Southerners love to paint the confederates in a positive light in part because there seems to be this sinking feeling that "If Great-Grandpappy was fighting to keep his slaves and not to protect his home, what does that make me?" Even otherwise liberal folks are strangely uncomfortable with finding out the may have had confederates in their lineage, when frankly I can't fathom why the fuck it even matters whether or not that's true. After all, I thought you guys didn't want to pay for the sins of your forefathers?

But still. Crack open any history book and you're going to get taught about white history. High-class music is European orchestral music. Great acting is defined by white Shakespearean theater. The best cuisine is French cuisine; they may eat snails and frogs, but that's extremely different from the bats Chinese people eat! The only period of great intellectual and scientific progress you learn about in the world is the European Renaissance. And this shit goes on and on and on. You would think that the rest of the world just wasn't doing shit, and indeed I as a black woman grew up with that mindset! When you're indoctrinated by adults to only learn what white people are doing as a kid, then you just put other people and cultures to the wayside except in small instances like the Civil Rights that inevitably have to be touched on, all the while lacking the critical thinking to understand that those instances had to nonetheless come from concurrent movements and springs of thought, philosophy, and action. Because you're never taught about those concurrent cultures and movements.

All of this creates this kind of thoroughline that white people came from great people, kings, leaders, and warriors (I guess that explains the foothold of Medieval fantasy in popular culture), or otherwise heroic and noble people, and that this condition of righteousness must be carried on at least in some part through genetics and ancestry. Society screams at white people that they were meant for greatness, because after all, the greatest things to experience are white things. And it leads into American exceptionalism (although let's be clear that American exceptionalism isn't only American- looking at you, Brexit), the idea that you are not held back at all by the social forces at play, but by the sweat of your own brow. You are the singular thing standing in between a life of toiling and a life that is completely walled off from that toiling through mounds of capital. Not society. Not capitalism. You. You are an individual. You have power. You have total control. You are, as they say, "the hero in your own story."

It's bullshit. Bullshit to assuage you that you aren't standing on a bedrock of blood.

Black people don't get that luxury. Yes, I grew up being told about the American Dream at school, and yet at home my parents gave me the talk that I would that I would never have an excuse to be an individual because I'm black, and being black comes with certain asterisks and addendums. I am not allowed to be stupid or ignorant; I need to know white culture better than white people know it, because if I make a mistake that's an indictment of the entire race. My clothes must be perfect and proper. My hair has to be chemically straightened to look like white people's. I am not allowed to make mistakes, because making a mistake could be the difference between coming home to live another day, and becoming a hashtag wherein you all argue whether or not I charged a cop and thus needed to be put down.

White people get the luxury of believing they are not bound by societal systems because white supremacy puts them in that position by default, because whiteness is the absence of grouping, and without a group you are free to be individualized. But it's a luxury that comes with a real human cost. Because when you believe that you're infallible, that you're not constrained by these kinds of social orders, that you aren't racist because you are some magical snowflake who's completely bucked the trend.... and yet your life still sucks, what do you do? Who do you get mad at? Who do you direct your dissatisfaction towards? Not the systems keeping you down, because they're simultaneously the systems propping up your ego. Black people largely shrug the suckiness of life off as an inevitability because we grow up behind the curve. Not to say we are impervious to things like substance abuse and mental anguish; we're human too.

But we're not the ones grappling with this kind of identity dissonance through mass shootings either.

A word isn't diluted simply because its definition applies to a wide swathe of situations.

Literally every single human being has to eat to live, but that doesn't magically dilute the biological importance of eating or the cultural traditions and norms around the world that surround the act of eating. No one says "If you say everyone needs to eat, well you are devaluing cuisine!" No, this is dumb.

This rhetoric, as with the majority of it in this thread, is borne from trying to distance yourself from the issue, and not from any real insistence on addressing the issue at hand. It's an attempt to frame racism as some nebulous evil that you, the special, impervious person you are, are definitely not influenced by, versus a system of beliefs and attitudes that happens to be so pervasive that you have no choice but to be exposed to it.

I like how the person in the video says all white people are racist, then says in her description below that anyone who disagrees with her has no right to speak to her. Hey, great way to encourage productive dialogue and bring people together. Thumbs up.

It's not on black people to heal racial divides. It's on white people to get their shit together and stop being surprised that scores of black people have had enough of talking to brick walls and just want to focus their energy on constructive outlets.

I haven't seen the first person argue against this concept, but I also haven't seen you use the words "All white people are racist." because you know it's absurd.

All white people are racist.

That was very easy for me to say.

Yea but you think songs about killing white babies are justified so who the hell is going to listen to a your view on the matter when you're a racist yourself?

Man, I bet you thought you had me.

Why do you think people are bringing up other races?

To deflect from having to examine white supremacy on its own.

Explain the ultimate goal of the topic question. It seems a quite useless one to me without any subsequent line of discussion.

The topic is pretty clear cut. It asks if all white people racist or not. Thus, you would think the discussion would follow trying to determine if that is true without asking about other ethnicities. If you think a question of such magnitude is useless, then I don't know what to tell you what to look for regarding productive discussion on a video game enthusiasts forum.

There's no examination being done in this question though. And I would say from the discussion seen here the topic is not quite so clear cut as you say it is.

The question itself is a bad one. Discussion around it is not bad, but it needs a direction better than assigning a characteristic to a group.

If the answer is yes - now what?

If the answer is no - now what?

Racism was never going to be lessened by this topic, or indeed any other you could frame yourself. Because frankly the time for talking has been over for centuries. The true question is when are white people going to be willing to make the altruistic sacrifices necessary to begin righting their wrongs.

As I said, my guess is never. No one has any incentive or spine to do so. So at the very least we can both take comfort in the lack of utilitarianism this topic has in regards to fixing society's ills (although, again, it must be noted that this threshold for a topic's existence is only leveled at white supremacy. Kinda funny how that works).

At the very least, it has given me a platform to speak on matters that are relevant to my daily life, help the few receptive people here better understand these concepts from a black perspective, and raise fragile people's hackles in the process. So not all was lost.

I feel like wanting to do the right thing and feeling like you aren't an awful human being are important to people, and the statement "all white people are racist" hits a nerve because generally speaking we wouldn't go around saying "some racists are alright", so there's a contradiction, or there isn't and I find that interesting. I don't disagree with the statement, I think no matter who you are you have your prejudices and it's all to varying degrees and what position you're in.

Again, I feel like being a truly good person is always a grindy work in progress because a lot of negative outcomes in society are the result of passive or normalized actions and customs you have to actively work to combat. In that vain, the desire to be a good person becomes irrelevant with regards to the work that needs to be done. I try to make my particularly moral choices on the basis of if it's going to help others. I don't care if doing so necessarily makes me a good person because it's not about me, or perhaps more specifically, the morality follow the actions. A good person is someone who is always consciously acting in the right even when they are burdened by a society built on wrong and, thus, will inevitably make mistakes and actions that are harmful anyway. Just as there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, there's no white person completely free of racism in a white supremacist world.

That doesn't mean you can't work towards making it better, nor does trying to make it better mean you are completely absolved of your responsibility to keep doing the work, in the same way that not buying Nike shoes doesn't mean you're necessarily a good person under an anti-capitalist lens either. Yes; being good is really hard!

So as I said in my opening post, racism is a spectrum of behaviors and beliefs. It's all bad, but to varying degrees of bad. Thinking black people are more impervious to pain is racist, but it's not going to illicit the same rebuking as being a klansman. Subsequently, any white person who, like, just recognizes their privilege or apologizes for personal screw-ups is a lot more forgivable than the white person who engages in the kind of dismissiveness and gaslighting this thread has been ripe with. You can, in a way (that doesn't give you a pass) be burdened with racism and still be a good person, because the former is inevitable.

Sacrifices like what? What steps should be taken?

You could start with reparations, for one. We know you got the money.

If the time for talking is over, what does that mean it's time for exactly?

It's time for white people to stop pretending they lack culpability, stop pretending they're ignorant, and kicking the can down the road. It's time for them to fix this mess. And yes, you're on a countdown timer. Demographic change is occurring whether you like it or not, and you cannot count on future generations to be as courteous as we are, despite the fact that right now today, we really have absolutely no reason to respect social graces and civility with how many bodies white people continue to leave in their wake. This is not a call to violence, by the way. I'm not saying black people should get violent, nor do I think that's even a reasonable risk today. No one wants to, especially since people feel they have other avenues of seeking justice. What I am saying is that history teaches us that violence is nearly an inevitability in cultures of mass inequality. America already fought one war over this.

Treat it like global warming. Do the work now to avoid getting absolutely fucked later.

Raising hackles isn't going to change much

Neither is having a conversion that placates the sensibilities of white people. Again, this is not in black people's court. It's in white people's, and for centuries the only attitude you all have shown towards racial progress is resentment and resistance.

I cannot give the white collective the will to want to do better by minorities, and frankly I would not even if I could. You need to find that in yourselves.

f you're expecting any diverse group to act as a monolith, you're going to be disappointed. But then it seems you already are.

It's easy to blast a faceless concept. Less so to work with individuals, and as much emphasis as you seem to place on it being up to white people, I simply can't imagine the job of bringing people together being the work (not responsibility, but the completed labours) of many different people.

There is no collective hive mind, so you're liable to keep your disappointed stance. Incremental changes pushed by motivated individuals though, I can see, and what ripples out to larger effect. The question is how best to motivate people.

The irony of this bit is that whiteness is inherently assimilating and homogenous, which is inherent in negative reactions by white people who then go on to appeal to their unique nationalities and personal struggles to separate themselves from what they see as an "Americanized" issue. It is amusing then how American critiques of a so-called American-centric phenomenon can nonetheless rile up non-Americans, almost as if whiteness itself is something that- despite being completely bogus- is nonetheless universally understood wherever there are white populations!

Alas, I don't think of you all as some borg collective. I do think of you all, in terms of the sociopolitics of race, as belonging to a single culture which in turn has unjustly amassed an unfair amount of capital and power through centuries of genocide and disenfranchisement, all of which is continually done. As such, it is not an issue at all to ascribe a generalized responsibility for white supremacy to everyone who opts in to white culture.

My son is mixed race. Which side of this does he fall on?

On whichever side he is treated by a society that ascribes to white supremacy ideals. If your son looks white, he will be treated as such, maybe with some asterisks. If he doesn't look white, he will be treated like any other non-white person, like Obama is. That's the name of the game.

This thread has been a real eye opener that's for sure, I have a question...

Do the people of colour on this board like white people? Or do you just dislike us all? Do you also actively stay away from white people in real life? Or do you have white friends? If you feel like they are racist is it even possible to maintain friendships with white people without feeling the need to have discourse with them all the time over the subject?

If you do have white friends how does the same question play out in real life? I'd imagine it's quite a nasty subject, is it one that's even bought up?

I'm just curious to know. It's not a trick question it's just the sentiment I always seem to see here of "fuck white people" and the such like that it almost comes across as if you hate the fact we exist.

OK, that was more than one question, but I'm genuinely curious about how your feelings play out in real life because as I say reading this thread has been a real eye opener.

It's not a question of like or dislike for me. It's a question of trust.

I would say like 95% of human beings regardless of ethnicity on this planet are a baseline good, and what I mean by a baseline good as that they are neither consciously oppressive nor anti-oppressive. They're pleasant, cordial, affable, they don't want to be mean to you, and if they are there's probably something going on in their day. They want to be helpful if you ask for help. They want people to socialize with in pleasant ways, they want to vent; when I was at Walgreens my goal was to get anyone talking and have them be more sociable and friendly going out than when they came in. Sometimes that meant really fun conversations about movies we just saw, other times that meant getting something off someone's chest and having them just smile for the first time that day.

People, in general, are very fun and awesome to be around. We are crazy-ass species, and I mean that in a good way.

That doesn't mean though that I necessarily trust white people to not be racist, because the fact is ever since becoming a more politically-minded person, I actually haven't met a white person yet in real life that hasn't said or done some dumb-ass shit regarding minorities or the way America's sociopolitical systems work, and it's not because of any active malice (most of the time). It's simply because you all don't know any better as a result of the society in which you were raised.

I've got two white friends whom I met through the furry community years and years ago, and I talk to them every week. Both of them have had to be checked by me and my other black friends and family members on more than one occasion regarding the n-word and white fragility (you would think that both being LGBTQA+ would give them some insight into the dynamics of oppression and whatnot, but nope). Working in retail I receive a markedly different treatment between people of color and white people in terms of things like eye contact, the fact that people of color never think it's a surprise that I'm eloquent, and even just the ways in which currency is dispensed to me (white people have a tendency to just throw it on the counter for me to pick up, but then expect me to give the change or card back in their hand. Meanwhile, I get regularly scolded by black people for reaching for anything they don't give me, because it's not my job to fetch things. So, you know, stop that shit; for real). Working with white people at my last job is markedly different than working with black people; Georgia is a conservative hellhole so, you know, fucking Fox News talking points abound (had an argument with a fill-in pharmacist my last week working there about confederate statues which ended in "agree to disagree," because you know, the confederacy is something to "agree to disagree" about), but even more liberally minded white folks don't believe Trump supporters are necessarily anymore bigoted than anyone else, and it's probably because they don't want to have to start going down that rabbit hole with their own family members.

I could go on and on. But regardless, white people live in a different culture than black folks do, and white culture is- again- one that was specifically born to justify the oppression of people who look like me, because to not do so would've made the Atlantic slave trade morally untenable if white people hadn't dehumanized the Africans they were subjecting that treatment to. That culture has been simultaneously exported the world over and never fully dismantled. There's very few places on Earth, if any, where I can go to escape it, and as such racial inequity abounds. But because white people don't suffer the brunt of the overtly negative effects of this system, it is very difficult for you all to perceive it until someone tells you about it, and even then there's that wall of fragility and defensiveness one must get through before it sinks in, because you all associate racism with a conscious act of evil and not simply the banal reality of the world we all live in and are all influenced by. Thus, you take a lot for granted and absorb a lot of shit that is, at best, casually racist. It's unavoidable.

So any interaction with a white person comes with the caveat of emotional distance. I can co-exist and interact with you all on the basis of you're human beings like anyone else, and humans are fun to be around. But I do not relax around you all in the same why I relax around black people, or even other ethnic minorities in general. I don't talk about 95% of the things that affect me or interest me in my real life from a black perspective on ERA because this is an overwhelmingly white space, and you all either won't get where I'm coming from or will actively be hostile and offended about it so there's no point in me bothering (for example, check out my Need For Speed Heat topic). But I talk to black folks about it, even black folks outside of the US, and those same folks talk to me. No matter where we're from, we get it.

[Boredfrom]

You don't have to pretend to have an answer, because black and brown people have done the thinking for you. There's tons of written and video content out there on what to do to get the ball rolling on dismantling white supremacy the world over, as well as plenty of organizations to join if that's your bag. In general, all white people have to do is implement the solutions that have been sitting there free of charge.

But that would mean admitting there is a problem and checking your ego at the door, instead of obfuscating the point and kicking the can down the road since the status quo is just so darn cozy. Because you can tell me you hire for diversity. You can tell me you teach your children right.

And yet you're in here pretending like conversations still need to happen, blaming Trump on minorities not outvoting 60% of the population, leaning into the falsehood the this is an American-centric problem, asking why I didn't put Latinos and Asians on blast, and ultimately not even actually trying to refute the propositions I put forth in that first post but still insisting that you are uncomfortable with me saying what I said.

Like, you're literally doing then thing I talked about in my first post and you don't even realize it.

I hate how much of a racist she is. And a liar too given that she has bitched about Asians and Latinos before.

[Potato]

Era has to be banning more members than sign up lately. 

2025 is going to be a rough year for the Purple Kingdom. Lord Dubs still wears the crown but assassins lurk around every corner waiting to put their own claimant on the throne. Since GRRM won't finish The Game of Thrones we'll watch our own version.

I wonder how paranoid they are with sign ups. Seems quite rare overall that a new voice is heard among the mafia battles, witch hunts and burkah reviews.

It's piss easy to sign up

[benji]

I hate how much of a racist she is. And a liar too given that she has bitched about Asians and Latinos before.

What I actually hate about her writing is her deliberate refusal to say what she means. You can read everything she wrote in that thread and you've gained no knowledge at all except that Nepenthe will condescend to you on the basis of divine knowledge she possesses by nature of inherently being herself and refuses to share or help you with other than to lecture you about how you've failed her and she shouldn't have to explain anything. She also writes this same way about the forum/community endlessly.

She's right when she says the conversation is not worth it for her because she absolutely does not believe she has anything to learn from anyone who disagrees with her. She's not smart enough to understand how narrow and fragile her Manichean worldview is to any basic questioning, instead she's written it off because she has no interest in being told she's not correct. She's offended that anyone would think they could dare. So she refuses to lower herself to treating them as worthy of equal status, they clearly aren't since they don't see her brilliance.

And the reason why I hate this is that it essentially makes her so very boring. If she didn't constantly display her ignorance about topics that are easy to Wiki but she feels too above learning about it would make her entirely insufferable. White people have to be the insecure ones to avoid her having to reflect on her own massive and obvious personal insecurity.

[Potato]

Anybody know some good conspiracy forums that are fun to read?

Arsenal fans are always good for some wildly belligerent paranoia

Lol, not a red card apparently



Most retarded fans in world football. I've met Americans who understand the rules better than Gooners.

[Potato]

I don't know if there's other "leaked" messages, that was what GameDeveloper linked in the story.

The story says this:

Activision Senior QA tester Sam Hudson appeared to confirm the ongoing harassment in a post on LinkedIn on January 25 and stated several of their colleagues had been "doxxed."

"This employee took screenshots of ABK wide discussions about the safety of our protected information (like name changes and visa statuses) and sent them to an an extremely racist, sexist, and transphobic individual on Twitter who has over a 100 thousand followers," they added.

"It is even more dangerous to be trans or an immigrant at Activision now apparently, as someone who works with us has no problems doxxing people."

But it's obviously referring not to any employee information but the message in the original tweet:


The claims of harassment and "doxxing" seem to be based on nothing other than the images showing people's names.

These people really don't understand workplace etiquette at all, do they?

Edit

Lol, of course

Activision Senior QA tester Sam Hudson

oh

At work, I have also been an Inclusive Game Design Ambassador for the past year and a half. I have researched and created documents for various projects as an IGD Ambassador. I have also been part of the ABK wide LGBTQIA+ leadership team, and have successfully lead two pride celebrations at the Austin Activision QA office. Last year, with collaborative efforts, I was able to get ABK into Austin Pride’s festival as a booth for the first time ever which greatly increased company visibility and showed ABK’s support of the Queer community. At my office I am also part of the Employee Engagement Committee and have helped collaborate and create various events in the office for my coworkers to celebrate and enjoy. Since working at ABK, I have worked on many COD games and gotten experience in many avenues. I could not do all of this without the amazing support of my coworkers, leadership (looking at you Adrian Ledda and Alayna Cole), as well as amazing managers (Jake Insinna especially).

Imagine if ResetERA.com dedicated itself to digging into the reporting and claims made around the gaming industry with an eye on skepticism of all dominant narratives instead of rushing to the same easy to predict mindless screeching that buys into whatever any idiot says that confirms what they don't need any evidence to already always know.

Posting that shit on LinkedIn too. Anyone who hires these idiots gets what they deserve.

[Daffy Duck]

Activision Senior QA tester Sam Hudson

oh

At work, I have also been an Inclusive Game Design Ambassador for the past year and a half. I have researched and created documents for various projects as an IGD Ambassador. I have also been part of the ABK wide LGBTQIA+ leadership team, and have successfully lead two pride celebrations at the Austin Activision QA office. Last year, with collaborative efforts, I was able to get ABK into Austin Pride’s festival as a booth for the first time ever which greatly increased company visibility and showed ABK’s support of the Queer community. At my office I am also part of the Employee Engagement Committee and have helped collaborate and create various events in the office for my coworkers to celebrate and enjoy. Since working at ABK, I have worked on many COD games and gotten experience in many avenues. I could not do all of this without the amazing support of my coworkers, leadership (looking at you Adrian Ledda and Alayna Cole), as well as amazing managers (Jake Insinna especially).

Imagine if ResetERA.com dedicated itself to digging into the reporting and claims made around the gaming industry with an eye on skepticism of all dominant narratives instead of rushing to the same easy to predict mindless screeching that buys into whatever any idiot says that confirms what they don't need any evidence to already always know.

Senior QA at CoD? Maybe spend less time writing documents and actually do QA and the game won’t be such a broken shit show as it currently is, just a thought.

[Besticus Maximus]

It’s kind of crazy how games studios have basically just refused to hire the best software people for over a decade. Even more crazy that they employed these loonies instead.

[Potato]

As she drives her shit class Nissan around her expensive suburb "stop fossil fuel!"

Those Extinction Rebellion idiots turned up to an oil and gas conference I was at once and were setting up a gas BBQ using a gas bottle with one of the exhibitors' brands on it. They were also wearing polyester clothes and using rubber soled shoes.

They're not really bright people.

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

I'm no era loremaster but I don't think she's ever caught a ban.

She was briefly banned for a least a month, all because there was something in her post about slavery and Nep had to be reminded that this that wasn't just a thing that happened to African Americans.

Edit: She wasn't actually gone that long, it was quickly overturned

[Polident]

It’s kind of crazy how games studios have basically just refused to hire the best software people for over a decade. Even more crazy that they employed these loonies instead.

Still, game quality remained consistently high!

…

I’ve been informed all well regarded games in recent memory were made in East Asia or by relatively smaller teams in Europe.

[benji]

While I'm on the subject here's some basic theory about why Nepenthe stole from the non-binary furry:

She couldn't do the job she was contracted to do for some reason. Rather than admit it she ghosted them and running into them at the convention made clear that Blizshadow Fursuits was too dangerous to keep operating. So she absconded from the other accounts and started up a second furry Twitter identity. And she stopped doing furry commissions so that it wouldn't come back up again and also because she recognized the ceiling of her abilities with no interest in learning to better them. She also coincidentally around all these events dropped her presence in other places and threw herself into ResetERA.com despite its dissimilar nature from her prior haunts. After her brief "career" as a gaming animator/modeler collapsed in failure she's essentially lost all her likely original interest in the community but is habituated into it and the surrounding Discords.

See how fun it is when you actually make concrete claims that are falsifiable instead of vague nonsense that doesn't mean anything? Report me to the cops if the above is accurate.

The way out of the cycle is to actually complete one of the many projects she starts and then fails to complete like rewriting the rules or making that Lucio comic book. If I have to pick one personally:

[benji]

We were two weeks too early to see this tweet from Nepenthe's brother:

   

[Propagandhim]

[Propagandhim]

No kidding...

We were two weeks too early to see this tweet from Nepenthe's brother:

   

So, for all the, "Yall gotta disrupt your family during thanksgiving and sit they ass down and talk about why they're wrong "  I'm assuming this guy is estranged from NepNep?



edit: thanks for editing that, I was posting from my phone and wasn't getting the tags right.