Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[Besticus Maximus]

Still in the process of reading. There is definitely a de-centering that happens when you talk about a "pre-Colonial Africa," wherein the history of the innumerable groups, nations, and empires within the continent can only really exist in relation to European colonialism, which in itself is a colonial framing within a more white supremacist sense. It also flattens these cultures' histories to the point of erasure and dehumanization: significant power reigned all over Africa for many millenia, and you don't build up a kingdom only through rousing debates in the marketplace of ideas. My issue thus far though has been on kind of a timeline front; European contact and subsequently the gears of the kind of modern, capitalistic colonialism we see today weren't really 19th century inventions. That shit had been going on since like the 14 and 1500s, and the moment you learn that you inevitably have to learn about Europe's hilariously tepid origins of continental contact because- again- Africa was full of different kingdoms and large polities who a lot of times weren't interested in the prospects Europe was trying to do business on. I imagine though that there is a more layman view of the time scale that the author is arguing against, one that I'm just not really aware of having done the little bit of reading and deprogramming I've done.

TLDR; Nepenthe doesn't know that these central african kingdoms were slave economies, or that it was they who were supplying the slaves to the European or Arab powers the entire time

[Cauliflower Of Love]

Sigh. Of course only super mainstream stuff wins for publicly voted awards.

That fourth award - gross. Are you down with editing the post to remove it? People can still see it within the link, but the cheerful little blurb that goes with it in the post makes me nauseous.

[Potato]

damn prob one of the few good things they came up with. Money really does rule the world, everything else be damn

 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/china-removes-government-body-official-feng-shixin-after-video-games-rules-spark-turmoil-80b-value-wiped-off-netease-and-tencent-reuters.801186/?post=117082500#post-117082500

Why they are so fucking dumb?

I particularly liked this quote from someone who posts on a website that has an autocratic governance.

Despite fantasy and pop culture often painting autocracies as cold, cruel, and efficient forms of government they're historically just cruel and stupid.

So, so close!

[kaleidoscopium]

I can't be the only one confused and googled "what is mid wizard game" 😂

I was excited to check out this "Mid Wizard Game" that I'd never heard of lol

I legit googled "mid wizard game"

[Potato]

This is a serious rookie mistake when it comes to dealing with bigots. No, you do not have to be actively engaged in genocide to be a Nazi. The literal Nazis were around for YEARS before they actually started their campaigns of murder and genocide, with their early years being largely limited to spouting the same kind of bigoted rhetoric we hear from today's alt-right. They didn't murder anybody then, but only because they didn't have the political power and military force they needed to do so and get away with it. But they were still Nazis, and those were their plans from the beginning. The modern alt-right is no different, and if you refuse to believe someone is a Nazi just because they aren't acting specifically like the late-stage, warmongering, height-of-their-power Nazis, that's exactly what helps them eventually get to that stage.

So once he gets the political power and military force, the guy who went somewhere else to talk about video games and shit is going to rise up and throw innocent people in concentration camps, torture them, starve them and numerous other horrific things and commit genocide now. 

All that rambling is what you are comparing people who discuss VIDEO GAMES to.

Again with the complete ignorance of anything that hasn't been covered in a Disney movie. 

The Nazis were violent from the beginning because German politics were violent in those times. Murder, assault and intimidation of political opponents and minorities was commonplace and most political parties had their own paramilitary force for this purpose.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/winter-storm-to-bring-snow-rain-wind-to-east-this-weekend.801273/?post=117087429#post-117087429

Finally, this winter has been wayyy too mild.

[kaleidoscopium]

Mid wizard game causing more people to google the game and talk about it is so sweet 😍

[benji]

Hogwarts legacy won best steam deck game, and they are upset lol 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-2023-steam-awards-winners.801279/

the cheerful little blurb that goes with it in the post makes me nauseous.

unfortunately this is what the wider industry thinks of the game as well. Which is nauseating.

[kaleidoscopium]

Hogwarts legacy won best steam deck game, and they are upset lol 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-2023-steam-awards-winners.801279/

the cheerful little blurb that goes with it in the post makes me nauseous.

unfortunately this is what the wider industry thinks of the game as well. Which is nauseating.

More than that, it's the best-selling game of the year.

https://gamerant.com/best-selling-games-2023-activision-blizzard/

[Potato]

Still in the process of reading. There is definitely a de-centering that happens when you talk about a "pre-Colonial Africa," wherein the history of the innumerable groups, nations, and empires within the continent can only really exist in relation to European colonialism, which in itself is a colonial framing within a more white supremacist sense. It also flattens these cultures' histories to the point of erasure and dehumanization: significant power reigned all over Africa for many millenia, and you don't build up a kingdom only through rousing debates in the marketplace of ideas. My issue thus far though has been on kind of a timeline front; European contact and subsequently the gears of the kind of modern, capitalistic colonialism we see today weren't really 19th century inventions. That shit had been going on since like the 14 and 1500s, and the moment you learn that you inevitably have to learn about Europe's hilariously tepid origins of continental contact because- again- Africa was full of different kingdoms and large polities who a lot of times weren't interested in the prospects Europe was trying to do business on. I imagine though that there is a more layman view of the time scale that the author is arguing against, one that I'm just not really aware of having done the little bit of reading and deprogramming I've done.

TLDR; Nepenthe doesn't know that these central african kingdoms were slave economies, or that it was they who were supplying the slaves to the European or Arab powers the entire time

Reading that slop just confirms that NepGPT didn't understand a word of what she read and most of what she wrote is just buzzwords she read from other people. She really is a stupid, stupid person.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/claudine-gay-resigns-as-president-of-harvard-shortest-tenure-ever-chris-rufo-rejoices-in-another-propaganda-victory.801264/

Good to know that if I ever get too uppity some right-wing clown will comb through my dissertation to try and find a murky missing citation out of the hundreds in my work to discredit everything I contributed to the field.

Plagiarism is a big deal just to brush it off, specially in her position and her school.

That thread really surpassed all my expectations. They're acting like Gay was an angel with a spotless record and the evil conservatives psyopped everyone into thinking she plagiarized papers. They think Harvard should have stood tall behind her because the wrong people noticed that she fucked up.

[No. 1 Boss Jocker]

*citation needed

Her funding? Where is the proof of the funding? Where? This is not the first time they've said this shit. If they had any proof, it would be all over the internet with their marysues and varieties and all that nonsense. 

Yet they keep repeating this lie knowing that anyone who argues with them will likely get banned so they don't even have to prove it. The fuckers use so many tactics to lie and that's the same thing they accuse republicans of doing. Like that topic, the Chapelle line "I love Punching Down", It is 100% taken out of context to make it seem like he said those words when he actually said "Apparently, I like punching down" which was just continuing his thoughts.

I legit never thought I'll hate these people as much as I do now. It's always lies with them. Lies, obfuscating the truth to meet their agenda.

Its from Kyuntujis Manifesto of JKR from the start of the Bitch-Eating-Crackers thread, of definitely real and not made up things JKR has done*.

Specifically, this claim is from a twitter exchange that went something like:
"How do you sleep at night knowing so many trans people online hate you?"
"On my big pile of money from royalties"

which - obviously - means she intends to fund her virulent hate campaign with all the money she has available, obviously.
Obviously.

*  

If they were remotely interested in checking where JK Rowling's money goes to her charitable organisation The Volant Trust produces fully audited accounts as required by UK Charity Law.

There is a list of current beneficiaries here on page 17.

Now admittedly I haven't gone through each of these recipients to check their bona fides, so there remains a possibility that the money donated to e.g. Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity is being funnelled to Militant TERFs to actively engage in genocide.

[Puffy Fucking Baby]

They're actually mad that Chapelle made a joke about how it must be Lil Nas's dream to be the gayest N-word alive. Somehow that's an offensive thing to say about the guy who made a video about how he pole dances in hell and fucks Satan

Theres a photo of them together in the end credits 

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

and one of dave and  

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/essay-the-idea-of-%E2%80%98precolonial-africa%E2%80%99-is-vacuous-and-wrong.801231/

My issue thus far though has been on kind of a timeline front; European contact and subsequently the gears of the kind of modern, capitalistic colonialism we see today weren't really 19th century inventions. That shit had been going on since like the 14 and 1500s, and the moment you learn that you inevitably have to learn about Europe's hilariously tepid origins of continental contact because- again- Africa was full of different kingdoms and large polities who a lot of times weren't interested in the prospects Europe was trying to do business on. I imagine though that there is a more layman view of the time scale that the author is arguing against, one that I'm just not really aware of having done the little bit of reading and deprogramming I've done.

TLDR; Nepenthe doesn't know that these central african kingdoms were slave economies, or that it was they who were supplying the slaves to the European or Arab powers the entire time

She didn't even read the quotes in the OP.

Other people responding are also either terrible readers or deliberately missing the argument:

There's also a broader issue of what the article means by 'colonialism'. Táíwò seems to be favouring an almost... classical definition, which might be fair enough, but he doesn't make that definition explicit, and so runs into issues when making repeated assertions of Islamic rule of the Iberian Peninsula as an obvious example of colonialism, and thus must be included if talking about 'colonial' Morocco

Because uh...

A lot of people would very actively argue against such a term being used there. Indeed, this is the first I've heard of someone that word for the context without it being, hopefully, a nationalist dogwhistle. And admittedly there is a long, drawn out argument over what the meaningful distinction between 'just' imperialism and colonialism is (maybe Táíwò doesn't believe in such), but that makes treating it as self evident for the purposes of his argument sour me a bit on the article.

I found the use of "Africa" to be kind of contradictory on that front, though? In the same way lumping thousands of years into the label "precolonial," lumping millions of square miles and billions of people across time into "Africa" feels antiquated. You can't talk about Egypt and Ethiopia and Nigeria in the same way - the very concept of Africa as a singular "unit" is a colonial institution, and generally speaking those people wouldn't have grouped themselves together without it. He brings up Solanke's writings on West Africa, but I think the context there (i.e. that he was proposing a federal unit within a colonial structure, and his idea of a pan-West African state was predicated on that structure in a realpolitik way) wasn't really addressed.

Nevermind that he's sort of playing a sleight-of-hand trick with how he frames colonialism in general - like, I don't think you can really understate the unique scale of European colonial occupation of sub-Saharan Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries. Talking about Ethiopian colonization of Somalia in the same breath seems, again, a little myopic?

It's not though because contrary to what people like Nepenthe claim, most European colonialism was a significant money loser.

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/claudine-gay-resigns-as-president-of-harvard-shortest-tenure-ever-chris-rufo-rejoices-in-another-propaganda-victory.801264/

Good to know that if I ever get too uppity some right-wing clown will comb through my dissertation to try and find a murky missing citation out of the hundreds in my work to discredit everything I contributed to the field.

Plagiarism is a big deal just to brush it off, specially in her position and her school.

That thread really surpassed all my expectations. They're acting like Gay was an angel with a spotless record and the evil conservatives psyopped everyone into thinking she plagiarized papers. They think Harvard should have stood tall behind her because the wrong people noticed that she fucked up.

This piqued my interest

Good to know that if I ever get too uppity some right-wing clown will comb through my dissertation to try and find a murky missing citation out of the hundreds in my work to discredit everything I contributed to the field. After publicly announcing his intent to do so, and then bragging about the new microscope he disingenuously placed on my work. Mainstream media needs to stop falling for these viral outrage techniques. The CRT shit, the immigrant caravans, the trans athletes in women's sports, the cancel culture at Ivy leagues - these are all being pushed into mainstream consciousness by bad actors who are begging you to write hand-wringing stories in mainstream outlets.

No one is making these things up. They're happening. If they weren't happening, no one would be able to push them into mainstream consciousness.

You're just shitty that your side's own goals and idiotic double standards are being exposed.

[benji]

They think Harvard should have stood tall behind her because the wrong people noticed that she fucked up.

Lots of people they repeat uncritically were saying this on Twitter weeks ago. For example these two morons:

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

[benji]

This piqued my interest

Good to know that if I ever get too uppity some right-wing clown will comb through my dissertation to try and find a murky missing citation out of the hundreds in my work to discredit everything I contributed to the field. After publicly announcing his intent to do so, and then bragging about the new microscope he disingenuously placed on my work. Mainstream media needs to stop falling for these viral outrage techniques. The CRT shit, the immigrant caravans, the trans athletes in women's sports, the cancel culture at Ivy leagues - these are all being pushed into mainstream consciousness by bad actors who are begging you to write hand-wringing stories in mainstream outlets.

No one is making these things up. They're happening. If they weren't happening, no one would be able to push them into mainstream consciousness.

You're just shitty that your side's own goals and idiotic double standards are being exposed.

I think the more appropriate response to this is:


Especially considering how falling for bad faith outrage is not just the main hobby of the forum but what he's literally doing in this post. He's being outraged exactly as other bad actors are telling him to be.

[Taco Bell Tower]

FUCK

I'M SO TIRED

The op in that thread

Best Game on Steam Deck Award: Mid Wizard Game
This game was so good, you wanted to take it everywhere. So you grabbed your Steam Deck and did! Luckily, everything that made it endlessly playable at your desk got even better on the go.

[HaughtyFrank]

Whoever prepped these people was totally incompetent and set them up for failure.

The entire episode was designed so they'd fail. And by "fail" I mean "create clips that Fox News could play on a loop to show that the Liberals are the real issue in this country." I don't think any level of training would have prevented that.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/claudine-gay-resigns-as-president-of-harvard-shortest-tenure-ever-chris-rufo-rejoices-in-another-propaganda-victory.801264/post-117092706

True galaxy brains now. You see, there was just no way for the university presidents to say that calling for genocide is unequivocally bad. It's one of these incredible mind traps laid by the conservatives where they ask you to condemn anti-Semitism

[Boredfrom]

play with capitalism you'll get burned

lol

oh no, our shareholders!

The CCP are not real leftists and China is 100% a capitalist state just run as a dictatorship. At the end of the day money is power. I expect more pushback from Chinese capitalists against the state if it keeps trying to eat into their profits.

Though this is just a layman's perspective

Even if the draft was bad still sad this whole fiasco happened because it will weaken the talk that is absolutely needed about regulating gacha and gaas

[JoeBoy101]

Still in the process of reading. There is definitely a de-centering that happens when you talk about a "pre-Colonial Africa," wherein the history of the innumerable groups, nations, and empires within the continent can only really exist in relation to European colonialism, which in itself is a colonial framing within a more white supremacist sense. It also flattens these cultures' histories to the point of erasure and dehumanization: significant power reigned all over Africa for many millenia, and you don't build up a kingdom only through rousing debates in the marketplace of ideas. My issue thus far though has been on kind of a timeline front; European contact and subsequently the gears of the kind of modern, capitalistic colonialism we see today weren't really 19th century inventions. That shit had been going on since like the 14 and 1500s, and the moment you learn that you inevitably have to learn about Europe's hilariously tepid origins of continental contact because- again- Africa was full of different kingdoms and large polities who a lot of times weren't interested in the prospects Europe was trying to do business on. I imagine though that there is a more layman view of the time scale that the author is arguing against, one that I'm just not really aware of having done the little bit of reading and deprogramming I've done.

TLDR; Nepenthe doesn't know that these central african kingdoms were slave economies, or that it was they who were supplying the slaves to the European or Arab powers the entire time

[Boredfrom]

It's not though because contrary to what people like Nepenthe claim, most European colonialism was a significant money loser.

Holy shit, this. It was a money sink for the Spain side.

[benji]

play with capitalism you'll get burned

lol

oh no, our shareholders!

The CCP are not real leftists and China is 100% a capitalist state just run as a dictatorship. At the end of the day money is power. I expect more pushback from Chinese capitalists against the state if it keeps trying to eat into their profits.

Uh, they realize that the CCP is the major shareholder of every major Chinese corporation right? These aren't publicly traded corporations in the Western sense, the CCP regularly does make demands overriding the formal ownership including requiring them to divest their assets for political purposes.

This isn't even counting how many of the shares are allocated politically to party members.

Even if the draft was bad still sad this whole fiasco happened because it will weaken the talk that is absolutely needed about regulating gacha and gaas

The talk that absolutely is needed: no, this should not be done.

[Boredfrom]

Someone mentioned the shareholder situation in the CCP but more in the line of “political corruption and CAPITALISM!” than “how it actually works here”.

It feels like they okay with China tanking their own economy if they get rid of stuff they don’t like in their video games (and the west followed through).

[benji]

It's not though because contrary to what people like Nepenthe claim, most European colonialism was a significant money loser.

Holy shit, this. It was a money sink for the Spain side.

The British became the major advocates of decolonization because they grasped the superior value in policing free trade on the seas with their naval advantage versus throwing men and money into literal swamps and deserts full of both hostile natives and other colonial powers purely for hypothetical global prestige. Something their continental neighbors seemed incapable of learning no matter how many times their states or neighboring states went bankrupt. (Not that the British really learned this lesson either when it came to their "crown jewel" of India lol)

But ResetERA.com isn't ready for that conversation.

[Boredfrom]

I can't believe people are falling for the campaign of hate against Dr. Gay. 1) The hearing was purposely set up as a gotcha against those university presidents 2) Many academics would run into similar issues if they had that much scrutiny on them.

This is a success of fascists like Chris Rufo, that's it. There's no merit to this ousting. They'll go after more university presidents after this and the same shit will play out and people will again try to act like this isn't an unjust result of a hate campaign.

They're just using the Gamer Gate playbook! Just like GGers got Allison Rapp fired from Nintendo! They dug through her old stuff.

For fuck's sake, I have a PhD and I know if you went through some of my student papers you'd find sloppy shit. Even sloppy citations. It happens. Especially when you're writing a document that's hundreds of pages. I'm reading posts accusing Dr. Gay of all kinds of shit, making her sound like she's James Somerton when she's nothing of the sort.

Holy fucking shit. I'm a female POC academic and I am livid. Fuck this. Fuck anyone defending this. This is 100% a hit job by the right that centrists and others went along with. Seeing how easy it was, it's going to happen again and again and again. I am sick to watch this. This is how the US falls further into fascism, when bullshit like this is given good faith interpretations by people who should know better.

Amen

The first thing that most colleges drill in you is that “Plagiarism is not okay and it can be done by just citing badly.

[benji]

Fascism is when academics can't do a plagiarism. And Nintendo fires pedophilia advocates doing sex work after explicitly agreeing not to do sex work.

[Boredfrom]

They're just using the Gamer Gate playbook! Just like GGers got Allison Rapp fired from Nintendo! They dug through her old stuff.

[Boredfrom]

For fuck's sake, I have a PhD and I know if you went through some of my student papers you'd find sloppy shit. Even sloppy citations. It happens.

You shouldn’t have a PHD, then.

[benji]

Kasumin didn't even think the accusations were real on the previous page:

Is there actual evidence of her plagiarizing anyone? I see this repeated as fact but with no actual confirmation, which I find really disturbing. This is an example of misinformation triumphing in addition to the right using Gamer Gate tactics on major public figures

Also, I thought they claim to be an academic:

Exactly! There was no right answer at the Congressional hearing. Stefanik set it up that way. I can't believe people are arguing that they deserve to be fired based on being placed in a no-win situation. Republicans do this all the damned time.

And now people are treating her like she's James Somerton when she's nothing like that. For fuck's sake, there's nuance to this situation that's been entirely erased and that's exactly how Chris Rufo and other right wingers intend for things to play out.

One of the things that fascists do is attack education and people are just sitting by letting this happen, nodding their heads to iffy justifications based on manufactured outrage.

Plagiarism is gross.

Bye.

Do you honestly think a white man would have faced this much scrutiny and manufactured outrage if he was in this position? A dissertation runs 200 pages at least. People make mistakes. Even your advisor won't catch anything. Anyone getting that level of scrutiny will have similar things turn up, most likely. The difference here is that Dr. Gay is a black woman. That's it.

Next time, if a white dude does it, send em my way and I'll say these same exact words:

"Plagiarism is gross.

Bye."

There's far more going on here than plagiarism. At least acknowledge that.