Grrl Power #761 – Piiiiigs in Spaaaaaace (cause they’re cops, see?)
MEANWHILE…
I wasn’t trying to be lazy when it came to drawing the inside of their ships. I was actually thinking about my lack of visionary futurism when it comes to designing stuff that I stick in the comic, like an alien spacecraft with heavy, loud, slow hydraulics on their cargo door. Partially that’s just because if I just draw a panel opening up, and Sydney’s not there to wonder aloud how it works, then it just looks like I drew a lazy door with no apparent mechanism. Which, to be fair, is the case some of the time. But if she’s there acting as the drive train of an exposition engine, then someone can say some futuristic shit about magnets or force fields or manipulating the Higgs Field or some such.
In the case of these ships, I thought it’d be cool if the pilots are held in an antigravity field, and the entirety of the interior of the cockpit was basically a holodeck. So it’s like a 360 view canopy with floating UI so you can slide your altimeter to the side if it’s in the way. Or… really, minimize it, because you wouldn’t need an altimeter in a spaceship most of the time.
Actually, I thought of the idea of a spaceship with the entire interior being handled via holodeck technology quite a while ago. Obviously the reason it never happened in an episode of Star Trek was because holodecks have a cascading chance of failure. It’s probably like 0.01% for any given time you step into one, but a 100% chance that something will definitely eventually fuck up. You couldn’t take a ship into battle if every time the ship brushed against a piece of space dust, the navigation panel disappeared and dumped the ensign manning it onto a featureless black grid.
Still, if you could bring the reliability up to 99+% even when you’re getting fucked up with space bombs, (and physical controls to fall back on when everything still inevitably fails) something like that would solve all the ergonomic issues I was talking about a few pages back. Like how nice cars have user settings, so you don’t have to fuck with the rear view mirror and the seat position every time your wife/husband/anyone-who’s-a-different-height-than-you drives your car, you could have a massively diverse crew manning all your stations. Your helm could be manned (personed? sapiented?) by a pixie on one shift, then a Marileth could sapient it on the second shift, then a tarantula with jellyfish for limbs who can only see in the ultraviolet spectrum could take graveyard shift, and they just wave their primary manipulation appendage over the DNA reader and their preset station pop into existence.
I just had to joke about a tarantula with jellyfish arms on the post for the previous comic. I guess he wasn’t that hard to draw, though tentacles get tedious real quick. I do think the cop pants are funny, though I guess technically it’s a skirt, since tarantulas have basically just one butt cheek.
And yes. The fungus lady has breasts. It’s my comic. I get to draw that if I want. If it makes you feel any better, just assume they can shape their bodies how they like as they mature, and they know that growing boobs gets them free drinks in bars from other species. Or fermented compost or whatever they drink.
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I’m going to assume that this is Sydney’s new friends coming to find her.
Sydney’s new friends are going to be in for a wild ride then, because I bet there are a lot more supers willing to cut loose once their homeworld is in danger.
I am sure Vehemence wouldn’t mind powering up for a good alien brawl.
Good god… imagine if Vehemence had gotten stuck on the Alari homeworld instead of Sydney
that’s simple Vehemence would have died.
Vehem can’t get power form the dead and by the point in the time line everything on the plant was dead. the squids would have rolled up and flatted him with likely little trouble
Archon didn’t go all out right away against Vehemence, which let him keep powering up. The first squidward blast would have killed Vehemence. It taxed even Sydney’s shield, which is a lot more durable than Vehemence. It might have even been able to hurt or kill Hiro (and maybe even Maxima, though less likely than killing Hiro).
Remember that Cora and her crew got delayed because they had encountered the Fel on their way to the Alari homeworld – and that Dabbler should know the “Fel” if she saw them, so it is kind of doubtful that they are the same race as the squidwards from back there.
So … probably “new friends she has not yet met” coming to get her ;)
A, so they are Cora’s friends. Probably come to get the Fell Artifact of unspeakable Cuddles back.
I had forgotten about that artifact… yeah, chasing Cora probably makes the most sense for their actions and motives… I imagine they’ll get quite the nasty shock when they’re faced with Halo and Maxima though.
Maybe we’ll get to see an all out blast from Maxima.
I want to know if other worlds have supers. Someone out their should have worked out some tactics they can use against them, if only “send an expendable scout first.”
Well, Earth has Achilles to act as “expendable scout.” The only drawback is that Achilles is no good at performing the “expendable” part of the job.
He’s a reusable scout :)
Im just hoping Sydney gets a cool moment here and gets to cut the Fel ship in half. That would be awesome.
Reusable expendable!
Not expendable if he is reusable
They can only go with the backup plan: Mr Amorpheus, the extensible scout
A good scout is one who can get in (or close), collect their intel (via Mark I eyeball or whatever), and then get out without being detected. Speed is also a good quality. Achilles can’t be killed, but other than that he really has none of the skills and abilities of a scout in a high tech and/or supers environment.
He’d have made any captain a fantastic scout in any era up to and including our present time, however.
We have no idea what he is capable of, just because he likes to goof around doesn’t mean he can’t be serious when the crunch hits the line
No one that has a mullet can be serious.
Okay, except for MacGuyver sometimes.
Only Original Mac can get away with it :P
On this we agree. :)
The only rebooted 80’s show that has worked, has been “Hawaii 5-0”, and that’s because they started off with McGarret (McGarrick?) being the son (which is what they should have done with both Mac and Magnum, or at least make Magnum a fucking girl like they did with Higgins!)
Someone out “belongs to them” certainly should.
I dunno, even Earth orbit might be too close to civilians for Maxima to go all out ;)
Now I’m imagining the response when a battleship moving at 99%+ of c plows straight into Achilles and turns into exciting new forms of matter, without damaging Achilles, then a second one gets a gigantic hole reamed in it by Maxima’s Sunday punch, Sydney diverts a third battleship directly into a star using an aetherium causeway (and it’s not even the local star!) and demos HER Sunday punch on a fourth leaving a somewhat less gigantic but still unbelievable hole in that, then Cora’s FTL (!) starship heads out to retrieve Achilles.
“I thought you said this was a pre-ftl world that had no chance against a Fel battlefleet?”
“It was. Or at least we thought it was.”
“How old is our intel?”
“About half a local year.”
“Something fishy’s going on….”
Sydney’s Aetherium Causeway isn’t all that large in diameter.
It might barely fit Cora’s ship, but probably not.
I think it would neatly throw a cylindrical piece of a large ship into another star system like coring a pineapple. If she had a way to obscure the Causeway so the ship didn’t just navigate around it, as the gate didn’t appear to form instantly.
Who’s to say her Causeway isn’t Bigger On The Inside™ and the opening distorts to fit around a ship if she’s inside it? Maybe even far enough to transport the entire Earth to a new orbit? Even though that’s clearly a horrible idea, orbital-mechanically-speaking.
We really don’t know enough about the florb (or the set as a whole) to know yet. Maybe it can just transport the user for now, but with a few more upgrades it could move an armada.
Still, removing a 1 meter radius cylinder from the bow to the stern of a star-ship is sure to cause it problems, especially if that hole went through part of the engine core. Oh, look, a small supernova in high Earth orbit. Time to reboot all the communication and GPS satellites. ;)
Remember that Achilles isn’t an immovable object, just an indestructible one. He gets punted downrange by any punch or energy blast which exceeds his inertia by mass, which seems to be about 180-200 lbs. If a battleship moving at 99%+ of c plows straight into Achilles, all that’s going to happen is that Achilles will suddenly be accelerated to 99%+ of c, since his mass is trivial compared to the battleship’s mass.
What happens to the battleship will be exactly what would happen to the battleship if it hit a 180-200 lb Achilles shaped rock while going that speed. And I hope people are constructing their battleships well enough to withstand that…
Impacts get weird at significant fractions of c. What would happen if an Achilles-sized object that wasn’t Achilles was rammed by a battleship moving at 99% of c would be that a strong compression wave would propogate through the entirety of both objects, converting them instantly into gas (with the accompanying catastrophic release of energy that Einstein predicted). The gas clouds would then interpenetrate each other and both continue on their original course.
Now, of course, Achilles is totally invulnerable and would remain unaffected by the compression wave, meaning that he’d be hit by the battleship, surrounded for a moment by a truly ludicrous release of energy in various wavelengths, and then left hanging in space exactly where he was during the impact as a battleship-sized gas cloud continued on its original trajectory with its speed unaltered.
Physics is weird, man.
I agree with Oberon on this :)
If someone with superstrength fights Achilles, and Achilles says ‘I’m invulnerable’ then the superstrong person can just punch him and send him flying while saying ‘Go be invulnerable in New Jersey.’
I stole that from World War Hulk btw, when Monet St. Croix said it to Hulk.
Makes even more sense in context of Achilles since he doesn’t have superstrength or flight like M does (well he’s like twice as strong because of the reasons given in DaveB’s FAQ about how his muscle fibers don’t tear, but not SUPER superstrength).
Of course, this is why I initially envisioned Cora departing in an FTL starship to go retrieve Achilles, calling into question the ‘pre-ftl’ part of their assessment.
Although physics really does get weird at speeds approaching c. Conservation of momentum still applies, but distribution of momentum is not as simple as “solid objects can’t interpenetrate and therefore A will be going as fast or faster than the remains of the ship.” The ship isn’t ‘solid’ in a collision at that speed, in any meaningful sense.
Each gram of moving ship carries kinetic energy well in excess of that required to turn many, many surrounding grams of ship into scattering superheated plasma – this is the fate of all of the ship which is outside the Achilles-shaped projection that he would, however briefly, occupy in the collision.
It is also the fate of most of the grams of ship coming *behind* any gram that directly impacted Achilles. The vast majority of it turns into high-energy plasma scattering away from that Achilles-shaped column where it would actually hit him.
So Achilles would get hit by some tiny fraction of that part of the ship’s mass which is in that Achilles-shaped column, at most, while the rest of what was coming at him will evaporate before it gets there.
And I’d expect him to be making a pretty good clip that-a-way, but only a very tiny fraction of the speed that the ship had in the instant prior to collision. He’d need retrieval, but he probably wouldn’t even get up to solar escape velocity.
watch the fell are same gold color and the thing that gave her powers is their creation
I’d find it funny if they were a just below the 3rds level civilization and recognized what was on Maxima or even Sydney’s Orbs and addressed THEM as officers while not recognizing the authority of the Xevoarchy
“Surrender immediately or – ” (noticing Sydney’s Orbs) ” – oh, sorry, we don’t want to interfere with your project, bye”.
That would be amusing, but from what Cora has said it seems clear from the context that Nth level (is that the correct term?) technology is just a rumor and/or legend, and that none exists or has been discovered, ever.
Plus, Sydney walked around a huge, alien complex with her obs out (that sounds dirtier than intended…) for at least several hours, was all over their equivalent of social media for her consumption of “really hot, but makes your ass glow on the way out” noodle soup, and no one recognized the orbs for what they were or even commented on them. I mean, when you can buy holo-wings and such at any corner shop it seems like duplicating the look and even some of the functions (to a much lesser degree, natch) of her orbs would not be an impossible feat for the tech level we’ve seen.
Speaking of which, if Archon decides to reverse-engineer and market the holo-projector wings Sydney picked up, the Halo Orb setting should sell really well. Arianna’s marketing spreadsheets are borked once again.
That would be a real genius move :) And totally in line with Arianna’s thinking.
It’s not Sydney’s friends. It’s the Fel. Seems like an alien race that is bad news, judging from how Cora was late to get to Sydney’s coordinates because of them.
They’re obviously coming to recover the Artifact of unspeakable Cuddles.
Indeed.
the tywom would have to be to blame for this
Actually at this point we don’t know what the term “The Fel” actually means. It could conceivably be a race, or it could be a political movement, or it could be a religious order. The only thing we are certain about them at this point is that they are trouble.
Aye, and we don’t even know what kind of trouble. The captain seemed to be really concerned that they were heading for a pre-FTL world, but maybe that’s because these guys scoff at the “don’t sell/give/make available FTL and other high tech stuff to pre-FTL cultures” rules. And the cops just need to make sure they don’t make tech transfer.
Or, they could eat planets for breakfast like Galactus. But in that case I’m not sure why we’d need the “pre-FTL planet” qualifier, because that seems like bad news no matter what your tech level.
Now I’m picturing the Fel as Intergalactic con artists that prey on pre-FTL civilizations.
Are they also nudists?
Okay, again fair enough possible interpretation. But so far each of the descriptions of the word Fel have implied they’re an alien race with dangerous and powerful technology, that Cora tries to avoid encounters with or has stolen from (Comic #674).
The reason the pre-FTL planet thing was mentioned is likely because the Xevoarchy tries to avoid giving pre-FTL civilizations knowledge of alien civilizations (like a Prime Directive), hence the paperwork that they’re trying to avoid.
I don’t think they’d be able to track Sydney because if they did they’d have gone to the station first. No, I think they are following the escaping Alari colony ship. Imagine their surprise when they find Sydney there and the other Supers. :D I can just imagine the next panel — Dabblers tells the press that there is no chance of an alien invasion coming to earth then Poof the Flel Battle Carrier shows up in orbit and starts firing on the colony ship. LOL
read other comments.
Ah, a segue!
Word of Halo’s awesomeness has spread, you bet!
His dialog has a spelling glitch “that” should be “than”
+1
Or, that is just how he speaks
I suppose this is the perfect opportunity to ask if you know the difference between the worlds “butt” and “but”, or if that’s “just how [you] speak”.
the worlds butt sounds like an alarming seismic anomaly.
I though it sounds like motor boat … (when said multiple times)
A certain Minbari in Babylon 5 found the idea of motor butts puttering across the water to be quite entertaining, back in the day..
Yes, and yes
Also, note how don’t use personal pronouns (unless it is quoting someone else)
Guesticus has a few quirks when speaking. Mentioned to me when I asked a long time ago:) Saying butt instead of but, saying Dirt instead of Earth, and when he says Deus, he doesn’t finish the sentence with ‘The True Hero of the Story, all Praise Deus’ – which is probably the most unforgivable thing.
:)
Guesticus is just an idiot, and best to ignore where possible, and point out his idiocy where not.
So the aliens Sydney fought are coming after her for a rematch huh?
They could be chasing down that Atari with no concept that Sydney is there
I don’t think so. This is “Fel”, but we still don’t know who Sydney fought. Even Cora doesn’t know, she just knows that their ship gave “troubling energy readings”. On the other hand, she already fought Fel for their “artifact of unspeakable… cuddles”, so she would have recognized the ship if it was the same species.
what if their weapons are pillows like the squid alien things in fairly odd parents anything nice and soft so on is a weapon. thus to them the cuddles artifact is weapn mass destruction but to us its a teddy bear XD the dreaded chocolate and field of flowers
Chocolate? That’s deadly poison! (to dogs, for example)
Oh Noes! Yorp could be collateral damage.
No evil chocolate for the puppy.
I will sacrificialy take the chocolate.
You are a true hero.
*awards golden (chocolate) medal of bravery for doggykind*
Not all heroes wear capes.
Nor should they.
Capes need to be detachable, not surgically attached to the collarbone, or only worn by those durable enough to survive wearing one
Considering that they’ve been identified as the ‘Fel’ and the only ones we know has had ‘dealings’ with them is Cora, it’s most likely that they’re tracking Cora’s ship, and has absolutely no idea what they’re about to face.
You can also see the ship they are chasing, and it seems to be a different configuration than the the one that destroyed the Alari homeworld. OF course, nothing saying that it can’t change shape and colour, but the fact it is known and looks different would argue that these are new players (new to most of Earth, anyway).
Given the mention of /having/ to do something and ‘incident reports’ strongly suggest that the Fel are being chase by a ship, or patrol, of the galactic police force that Cora assured Sydney really exists (even if it is not always good at its job and on occasion may be a bit bribable)
Yeah I’m pretty sure that we moved away from dabblers explanation 200 my end of the world situation incoming. Honestly I don’t think they followed Sydney there I think they followed the first Atari refugees to arrive.
Makes more snse, considering Florb FTL is said to be untraceable, and she jumped to Fracture rather than Earth anyway.
As keeps being repeated the Fel were mentioned by name by Cora who has one of their artifacts on her ship. So chances are they are tracking her.
So why is the tarantula with jellyfish arms wearing pants/skirt? Because there is a universal need – for pockets.
Tarantjellies takes appearance seriously and make a effort to dress sharp.
Only slightly less confusing than the question, why does fungi grow boobs? 2 legs, okay, I’ll buy that. 2-4 arms, okay. roughly 2 eyes, 3D vision… check. Boobs, for milk… with a plant-seed/fungi-spore based animal?… does not compute.
Possibilities include –
– they’re not related to nursing and are vital reserves like a camel’s hump.
– their young do need to nurse at some stage in their development.
– squirrels
I made a joke comment some pages back about Deus getting with a large breasted alien but the breasts are both a male and female feature filled with spores that they spray into the air to mix together.
So, just going with that, spore sacks with the duel purpose of displaying health and maturity to potential partners.
We don’t actually know how many legs she has. The butt slides offscreen in such a way she could be centauroid. We can’t even be certain she has two, since those could be downward facing arms on an immobile fungal mass.
She may have some human DNA.
Human T n’ A indicate human DNA.
Daniel here. Noticed a few people suggesting all this has something to do with Sydney. I’m thinking the FEL Super Battle Carrier is on it’s way cause they have some means of tracking the FEL Artifact Of Unspeakable………..Cuddles Cora & crew picked up- https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-709-para-go-on/ – before finding Sydney. If so, things could get interesting…
GrrlPower Earth may still be pre-FTL, but it has a strong compliment of Supers ready to go right here, and that’s just America. I’m wondering if other countries also have their own ACHON type setups. I know Australia has plenty of room for Supers to train in, & we’re crazy enough to push the limits hard…
>I know Australia has plenty of room for Supers to train in, & we’re crazy enough to push the limits hard…
Considering you’ve banned guns, I think Australia would be on “superheroes – threat or menace” bandwagon.
We haven’t banned guns, we’ve just made it so getting one means you have to have background checks and have a reason why you need it. We’ve got a good old 12 gauge shotgun and a .223 hunting rifle in a locked gun safe in the house (with the ammunition locked in another secure container in a separate part of the house), because we have a problem with Foxes (an introduced pest which will happily slaughter all our chickens, ducks and geese and also attack our neighbours sheep). Both are licenced as is anyone legally allowed to shoot them. We don’t need an AK-47 or equivalent assault rifle (unless our Foxes start wearing Kevlar armour and attacking in large swarms, and frankly if that happens we’ve got bigger problems than firepower. :-) )
Don’t bother with an AK-47 for foxes with Kevlar. Use an old H&K G-3 instead.
Nothing says ‘I don’t want you here’ quite like a burst of 7.62 NATO.
(A version with just semi-auto setting was available at one time, so it might even be legal down under. )
Semi-automatic version is the H&K Model 91.
I bought one during the Beirut war in ’83 and sold it after I had a stroke and couldn’t break it down and reassemble it for cleaning without buying special tools. Good hardware.
In defense of Americans, we primarily use the AKs (and ARs) for roving packs of wild hogs. Look it up, they are spectacularly vicious and dangerous to the environment. Oh, and would-be tyrants who really do ‘want to take all our guns away’ (can back that up with pics and websites! XD). I’m a big promoter of locked up when not in use, but different safes in different parts of the house seems to be a level of absurdity that defies common sense. If one safe isn’t enough to stop someone from stealing them, how would two be? It just adds another step onto a complicated process that’s already difficult enough in a stressful situation.
“Oh, crap! A dingo’s eatin’ the baby! Quick, run to the other side of the house, unlock the gun safe, get the rifle out of it, take the gun lock off of it, run to the other side of the house, unlock the ammo safe, get the ammo out of the specially secured tin it’s in, load the rifle and come kill the.. … nevermind, the dingo already killed the baby, Gramma, twelve chickens and is on it’s way to Brisbane to start a career in politics.”
Generally the response to wild animals eating somebody’s child in Australia is to make fun of the bereaved parents for decades.
Australians have proven irrefutably to the entire world that that is who they are and what they are about.
For the most part they are unrepentant and will take offense at anyone calling them on just how nasty that is.
No remorse to be found.
In Texas, it is legal to shoot wild hogs from a hot air balloon.
Going from what I know about wild hogs, that’s probably the safest way to do it.
The safest Until pigs fly
I need to visit Texas.
You’d be welcome. I have a cousin with semi-wild hogs on his property.
I have friends with a hunting lease, and who know lots of farmers with wild hog problems.
They know all the best butchers for when they don’t get enough meat to justify setting up their massive meat processing operation (seriously these guys could become a commercial hog processing business if they didn’t make so much money on their real jobs) and (to make a long post even longer) there is a butcher over in Munster Texas that makes the best sausages.
If you do come here to hunt hogs find that butcher.
So that’s where “duddo” Dutton came from.
You can’t fool me. Everyone knows that in Australia, every citizen is given a big knife for close combat and a boomerang for distance combat, and therefore they do not need guns. I know the deal. I’ve watched Crocodile Dundee.
It’s a well known fact that Australians who can’t wrestle alligators into submission, eat poisonous millipedes for breakfast and block kangaroo kicks rarely survive long enough to breed.
Hence why they probably have the largest concentration, per capita, of supers anywhere.
Australia also have a lot of room for secret supervillain/hero lairs.
Yeah, looks like I gotta answer for Daniel the Human, he’s finding it hard to stop laughing…
It’s not Alligators Aussies have to deal with, it’s crocodiles. Salt Water Crocodiles. Much meaner than some Alligator. As that Steve Irwin guy said when he brought an angry gator on an American late night show, “…if this was a croc, I’d be dead already…”
Thing is, these crazy Aussies don’t hunt “salties” with rifles like those people on that “Swamp People” show use on gators. Oh no, salties are protected. Bloody crazy Aussies use STICKS!! Literally, broom handles basically!! They kinda scare me at times…
I can see plenty of Australians turning into Supers, if only to SURVIVE THE DAMN PLACE!!!!
It was very unaustralian of me to use the wrong term for crocodiles.
You were probably thinking of Dundee’s Floridian cousin, Alligator Andy. It’s a common mistake. No worries, mate.
I see you are a worldly and learned person as well.
But what about the Emu War? You never know when a gang of unruly Emus will go after your garden.
Apparently there’s a truce or something like that. All I know is this place is scary at times…
Emu are the only known natural predator of the Australian. Everyone knows that.
I don’t understand you. You say multiple gun safes various places are absurd, then explain an example situation that would justify distributed gun safes, and then say distributed gun safes would make that more difficult? I’m clearly confused.
Multiple gun safes remove or optimize the steps of “go to where the gun safe is” and “return to where the problem is”. It’s not at all about protecting the guns better, unless somebody’s putting gun safes inside gun safes.
I’m reminded of the movie remake of Death Wish and his innovative gun safe furniture.
Perhaps you’re confused because you misunderstood what I said? I didn’t mean having multiple gun safes was absurd, I meant having two safes, one for ammo and one for guns on opposite sides of the house, as the op noted, was absurd. Doubly so if you’re in a place in the house where neither of those safes currently, are, and the problem that requires a gun is also not in either of those places. Having multiple safes with both the guns AND ammo in them (which I think is what you’re suggesting) wouldn’t be a problem, other than people claiming you’re a gun nut. XD Perhaps it’s my fault you misunderstood for not specifying that in both my question and example as opposed to just the example.
No, you are thinking of the piss-shitting country next door who has banned all firearms (and they couldn’t even keep them locked up for long before someone just wandered into the cop shop and retrieved a few of them, and then it turned out that the cops had simply returned them themselves without informing their colleagues)
DaveM’s got most of it, but there is more. In Oz, you cannot have a military (read “full auto” and/or shouldered cartridges) weapon, or a handgun UNLESS you are a member of a registered gun club, AND you must store those weapons on the club premises.
Semi-auto is fine, but shotguns are restricted to 8-round magazines IIRC.
Considering we live in and enjoy what is considered the most naturally dangerous place in the world, it’s nice to know the loonies actually have to learn how to shoot properly if they want to hit the target. Or steal a high-powered car to play mayhem on the highways…
Just want to mention that semi-auto means almost every gun currently made. Most people don’t seem to know that semi-auto just means one press of the trigger = one bullet. It’s not like ‘burst fire’ in video games. :) Full auto firearms are already illegal in the US for civilians and have been for almost 25 years, since the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986. Semi-auto firearms are not illegal.
Fully automatic (or burst fire) weapons are not illegal for civilians to own*, they are just very tightly regulated. Also, since only automatic weapons made before 1986 are legal, they are very, very, very expensive to purchase.
* On the Federal level, state or local laws do differ.
Okay, fair enough. But they’re so tightly regulated that they are almost de facto illegal. Not to mention the fully auto weapons cost tens of thousands of dollars each (which only happened after the 1986 law was put into effect).
Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986
https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/senate-bill/49
In the US they made legal ownership of a fully automatic firearm so expensive because the rich elites wanted to make sure that only they could afford them. It just wouldn’t do for the common riff raff to have firepower equal to that of the elites.
This guy gets it.
Non-USAians – don’t waste time trying to explain gun reality to USA folks. The USA has 120 privately held guns for every 100 people (yes, that includes 1.2 for each baby). The next highest is the Yemen, with 68 per person. The Yemenis are in the midst of a vicious civil war… Not sure what the USAians think they are involved in. NA NA NA NA NA we’re not listening!
3% of americans own approximately a quarter of all civiilian held guns. in the world.
…huh.
Was sure Switzerland was second for some reason.
That reason probably being reading some years ago about Switzerland having more privately held automatic weapons than Army of Ukraine had, well, in Army.
Oh, well…
As for the other part, I (figuratively) always was of the opinion that open carry firearms must be a mandatory part of Citizenship Contract – as in “you want to be a Citizen of the State – you have an obligation to learn, keep, maintain, and openly carry a firearm as part of your obligations as a Citizen; if you are unable to obtain one through legal channels, you would be issued with State-licensed item; if you are unwilling to carry out this obligation, you are disqualified from being a Citizen” or something like that.
…Not many agree, where I live //emoji of mild disappointment in intellectual capabilities of certain people// and “Oh, well” number two.
I suspect that the Swiss figures are distorted because the guns are government issue, not purchased privately. What’s stunning is that so many USAians have been frightened into buying their own from the gun industry, in absurd numbers. They even boast about their guns!
Anyway, this discussion is really off topic for this comic. Let’s stop here.
That may be the most optimistic thing I’ve heard in weeks.
//cheers
When the zombie apocalypse occurs, we’ll try to save some extra ammo to help out your European survivors.
Just kidding. There won’t be any extra ammo, because we’ll have a hundred million targets coming in from the states that have banned private carry.
That’s fine. We’ll stick to taking down smaller groups with quiet weaponry, you keep making enough noise to draw a horde. Plus, you know, castles designed for withstanding human attackers.
There’s probably a comment in there about Europe having less of a problem in the first place because it has the functioning health service and political will to tackle pandemics effectively, but that’s verging dangerously close to the political. Time will tell.
Thanks for the link. I initially read that as a “fell artifact” (Fell: FIERCE, CRUEL, TERRIBLE, SINISTER, MALEVOLENT from the Merriam Webster Dictionary) rather than a Fel artifact. Guess Cora didn’t manage to shake off all her pursuers after all. Mind you, that Fel super battle cruiser could be in for some trouble if it meets the team of Maxima “our lady of ash” Leander, and Sydney “sorry, was that your planet killer?” Scoville. :-)
Well the Fel could also have tracked the Alari to Earth.
Three things of “interest” to them in one place? Probably like chum in the water to sharks.
Will we learn about those two-the mushroom lady and bug boy!?
The JellRantula is wearing Jorts. The Jell-Ranch-Ula…is wearing….Jorts.
You got me…never thought I’d be typing or saying that sentence aloud to myself at (nearly) 6am on a Monday morn while drinking Bourbon Coffee.
“The JellRantula(Jell-Ranch-Ula) is wearing Jorts.”
He ain’t got no legs!!!! And what’s with the body armour!? I seriously doubt his species has mastered standing(floating) upright.
Mushroom Lady is hella cute* tho.
Alright, cue giant space battle above Earth in 6,5,4,3,2……..
*Don’t Judge Me!
And the Jellrantula has a police baton/nightstick attached to the belt holding those shorts… on.
Well it probably just looks like something US police officers use, yet probably unlocks into some kind of powerful alien tool for policing.
lol, I saw that. Figured I was far enough down the rabbit hole already without digging into the Jelly tentacles swinging a nightstick with enough force to take the fight out of a Space Perp but I’m glad someone did it.
Wait…is the term “Space Perp” derivative?
‘Perp’ is short for ‘Perpetrator’
>Don’t Judge Me!
From someone who finds Tsabo Tavoc and Zuggtmoy attractive – have no fear.
Will still judge you, though – but only on being too square.
Seeeee….This is where we part ways and I start SUPER judging you. I don’t do spiders, in any way, shape, or form**. So, Tsabo is a no.
Zuggtmoy? Ehh…depends.
**Ok, Elise from LoL is the exception but if she bring company over, the limit is 3.5 legs or under and she can’t be hanging upside down or doing other Spidery nonsense when I walk in the door or turn a damn corner.
But…
But…
But spiderses are absolutely adorable!
Way better aliens than before. Push the limits of what we limited minds call imagination. Sentient space time manifolds we can only partly perceive. Gas clouds that think so slowly we communicate with them by leaving ancient monoliths for them to find and read half a million years after we go extinct. Intelligent superheated exotic subatomic particles surviving the long cold dark age after the big bang.
Oh great… The AI is trying to be politicaly correct.
And the bug man does not appreciate the effort.
or was that the mushroom lady speaking through comms?
Well, someone is.
That’s because they used the wrong term – clearly, it was a nanoaggression, not a micro one.
Now, using wrong prefix for defining the factor of aggression is a microaggression, so we are going two for one here – and we didn’t even started unpacking it further – which is a femtoaggression in itself – or maybe pico, depending on the levels of things left unpacked.
>femtoaggression
MY SIDES ARE IN ORBIT
Typo: I would rather ram it that have that much paperwork. Should be “than”
Are holodecks the same technology as hard light? So hard light limbs have the same failure rate as shipboard systems or higher because they are much smaller and don’t have redundancy?
The mushroom lady is awesome and I’m going to be sad when she doesn’t join the main cast, because that design is fantastic. (And also I might have a bias towards myconoid-type races and stuff in fantasy. Mushroom-people are awesome.)
Did you see the Fungal Queen from Reapermini?
Does the fact that the mushroom lady is not wearing any clothes have anything to do with her popularity?
Sadly, not all the great characters can become full-time cast. I would’ve loved at least a few of the food court onlookers to pop up again.
You’re So Vain you probably think this comic is about you.
No one said it was heading for Earth.
How many other pre-FTL world’s have been mentioned in this comic so far? o_O
Earth’s a gimme on that one. Fel, pre-ftl destination… and a flash cut away from Dabbler. Too many coincidences for it to be an arbitrary (expendable) pre-FTL planet.
I think jayessell is joking, since it’s obvious that it’s heading for Earth, where the Fel Artifact of Unspeakable Cuddles is currently situated. :)
Fell artifact of cuddle, I have a Cthulhu plush with a pirate eye patch and a pirate micky mouse ears on it does that count? That or the cat that insist on cuddling on it’s terms. Also aliens are in for a nasty shock when they attack the earth. Supers and magic users oh my.
I’m pretty sure it’s not actually an artifact of unspeakable “cuddles” unless there’s a child present.
It’s the sort of artifact best stored in a tentacle closet to keep it from being frustrated and causing an incident. Fortunately Cora’s ship is well equipped.
Poor cops, not even a group entry in the cast.
Can’t be enter if they have no name
Indeed.
How bold of us to assume everyone has to have one…
It happens more often than you think: falsehoods programmers believe about names. (Every statement on that list is false and has verifiable counter-examples)
For example, they may be considered too young to have proven their survivability, and thus their right to a name (as with certain bush-tribe children under 5). If Arach-elly has a few thousand siblings, like some earth species, that could apply even well into their puberty…
Do we know how old he/she/it/they/hir are?
And Shroomia looks like enough of a hardcore individualist, breaking her species’ conventions (the boobs…), That she may have also broken with the naming convention, like certain earth artists “formerly known as”.
Warnings
* incoherent ramblings
* wall of text
…And most of the points on that list are compleate and utter bullshite created of purest straw, pardon my low Phyrexian, made up specifically to discredit one true point in the entire list – number 40.
For the shock of it, I presume.
…as an off-hand remark – any programmer who states any of the ##1-39 while not making a sarcastic joke should be fired on spot for being criminally incompetent.
As another off-hand remark – did you know, that the word “payphone” can be written in at least 17 compleately different but equally erroneous ways? Experienced programmer would simply place a strict input filter, rookie one would make an algorithm to process all of them differently – and still would be crushed under the Erroneous Ways ##18-38…
As for other matters…
It all leans heavily on the definition of “Name” and the standard pattern of cultural traditions coming with it. Even in the absence of Name – like in the case of certain bush-tribes you’ve mentioned – there will be some ID-tag still, connected to the child in question: such is a quirk of human psyche that humans simply can’t think about the concept until they have a word for it. If such word does not exist, it would be invented, or substituted with a descriptor of some kind – like “that thingamajig that beeps and twirls” as opposed to “that thingamajunk that boops and does that stuff sometimes”.
Of course, there can be a cultural tradition that prevents one from gaining a Name without a Rite of Passage, or until the certain age – like the belief that children does not have souls until the age of 13, for example, or until circumcision is made. Usually, though, children in question would bear either a temporary child names, or a monikers of “someone’s child/progeny/larvae”.
If you are making a DB for some culture where people has no names until a certain criteria has been met – first, my condolences; and secondly – just assign secondary unique ID-tag, and make sure all the relations are mapped correctly. External Name has no feedback relation to internal, and may be changed on a whim. Internal ID should be set in stone.
I’d say, that in the case of ‘Arach-elly’ being of extremely R-oriented kind, there should be something like “drone#2345835863284” tag still. It may be a result of cultural adaptation, the underdeveloped nymphae traditionally serving as, well, servitors – unthinking and unpersonal, being uncounted and allowed to die freely without report, used interchangeably within a certain class akin to nuts and bolts; but with the advent of civilization (as we understand it – nay – as we are able to recognize it) that must change – simply for accounting purposes, if nothing else. There is a strict difference in resource management involved with creation of a simple bolt, and a creation of Servitor being of relatively high complexity – and even here, abovementioned nuts and bolts will have an individual Name: an individual collective Name for each specific bunch of them. In fact, come to think of it – each bunch would have at least two Names: parametric class they belong to; and serial number issued upon the making of the bunch in question.
In other words, “formerly known as” in still “known as”.
Problem lays in the concept of Name being closely tied to the concept of Personality as we understand it. Just try to imagine the language without “I”. There are languages without colours, directions, separation of continuous time – or even the concept of it. There are languages that make you unable to say something, languages that shift your worldview simply by you knowing them. Russian “blue” is not English “blue”, French “warm” is not English “warm” – the words are same, the concepts behind them are different.
There are no though, to my recollection, any natural language without the concept of ‘I’. And with concept of ‘I’ always comes the concept of ‘Name’. Show me a language without ‘I’, and I will show you a bunch of slaves, born and bred for that very purpose. And even in that case, they will have unique, if impersonal and frequently changing, IDs – just so their Master’s job would be easier.
Thinking about concepts without words associated with them is, admittedly, difficult. That having been said, not only am I capable of it, but it feels to me like I’m certainly not the only one. Without being able to think of a concept, one has no idea it exists to need a name. As such, anyone who coins new terms for completely new concepts must be able to do this.
That said, thinking about concepts for which one has no words is hard. Those who can do this and are able to come up with new words they’re comfortable assigning to those concepts tend to do so very quickly to avoid that extra cognitive work.
While, indeed, pure abstract thinking can be undertaken, I still maintain the opinion that it is not purely abstract in the sense of namelessness. First thing one does while cogniscizing a new concept is giving it Name – at least with cognition process on the level of reason, and not feelings.
While I agree, that one on the edge of discovery must indeed be able to imagine the Nameless, the transition from “I feel it” to “I think it” is what makes an abstract Unnameable shape into an Idea – and upon crossing that line, the Unnameable concept finds name.
This is the core of true transcendental horror, by the way – if you describe the Monster, it becomes Named, and with the Name it loses power. If you just hint at what monster is – or could be – and leave the reconstruction of the concept to the recipient, then – with sufficient background and frame – the reader would be able to feel the Unnameable without Naming it.
We do not fear things we can Name. If we fear something we know Name of, it simply means that where is an Unnameable aspect about it – something we can’t think about, something we can only feel. Name it, bind it, rationalize your fear – meet it face to face, and let it flow above and through – and let it cease. Chained by the power of Name, it will vanish, and only you will remain.
But I digress.
What you are leaning to – to my understanding – is the ability of some people to think of something without giving it name. While I think that such thing is, essentially, impossible for anyone thinking rationally – bar the initial moment of imagining the non-existent. The moment imagination steps down before cognition is the moment the Unnameable becomes the Named. Even if the process of Naming is instinctive, and unregistereable for your higher consciousness.
Look deep enough into the shapeless abyss of your imagination when you are doing it, and you will see the muffled and blurry shapes of Names Unspoken. Unspoken – but still existing already in your mind.
While I’m far from outright discarding the UnThinking as an impossibility, to reach that level of intentional abstraction is to understood the meaning of Zen.
If you are able to do so truly, I’m deeply envious then, for chains of samsara throttle me, and you are free.
With envy being one of such chains, obviously – but oh well.
Returning to the point of Names, abstract thinking is a highly sophisticated matter of great complexity (and simplicity which lies beyond the threshold of it). It is not compatible, imho, with the level of cognizance there the concept of “I” and corresponding concept of “Name” roots from. You may revisit that level later in your development with your newfound enlightenment, but without the basis of Name there will be no enlightened abstragizing to analyze the Name with.
The question of supposed collective beings not needing the name, really, is more complex, though.
See, each of your fingers has a Name.
Not each of your cells, though.
You do not feel your cells, you can’t command them at will (usually) – much less can you do that with atoms composing your body. You don’t name them. Unless they are abnormal enough to earn the right to be Named – as cancerous tumours do, collectively.
So, in the end – in the supposed collective consciousness what are the individual parts? Are they like cells? Or are they *happy campers*?
THOT of the day: Logorrhea is horrible. Raise awareness, and keep safe while you still can – but don’t weep for the fallen, for they choose NOT to get up.
We all know how dangerous it is to have no name in this type of setting.
But why not an entry as “space police” or such.
Indeed – even characters with a first name will sometimes save their last name for an emergency plot ex machina.
More worringly, if you are in a story and you have no name yet you are dumped straight into an action sequence, it is time to fly straight out of the story again. Before you become a learning experience for the named characters of the story.
Having no name makes it more likely that Ennio Morricone might write you a theme song.
Cute mushroom girl.
Words I thought I would never hear(see) myself say.
I certainly wouldn’t mind ruffling her spores, but I imagine there would be significant organ compatibility issues.
Unless she’s part mycanoid, part human, in which case never mind, since clearly someone already figured out a way around that issue.
Captain Harkness and commander Shepard would find a way.
If you have hands or equivalent to manipulate your environment then you can figure it out at least far enough for entertainment if not reproduction.
Hands, fingers, tongues, (toy assistance), tantric, just skin contact plus some other stuff. You have to work together to find each other’s erogenous zones and work from there.
-something many a human seems to forget, humans have more erogenous zones than they give themselves credit for as well. Get creative in the bedroom, the floor, wherever.
KOPS IN KILTS!!!
Two minutes laterrrrr…
I expect having ‘breasts’ also cuts down on the “are you old enough to be doing this? Can I see some i.d.?” issues.
It can’t even cut down such issues here, on Erf.
Unless you are looking like Hell walked all over you, conversing party automatically presumes that you are under age. Even if you have three of your children with you, clamping the appendages in question.
It’s like with beards for H.Sap males – you may have the most magnificent face rug in the three hundred kloms radius, and still would be treated as three younglings in a trenchcoat.
I work at a movie theater and can confirm, we still have to check ID for R-rated movies and get so many angry people but…I have seen teens who look and sound exactly like the 20 somethings; there isn’t a big if any in some cases cosmetic difference between a 16 year old and a 21 year old. Hell my nephew was taller than me with a beard at 15.
My point exactly. //cheers
Biological adulthood =/= social adulthood =/= legally recognizable adulthood.
True. I have a friend who was 6 foot 4 with a full beard at 14, and I continued to get carded well into my 30s.
So, I’m pretty sure humans are the only species on Earth who have permanent boobs. All other mammals just have engorged breasts when they have babies to feed… so, coming off of the last pages, why does that fungal looking alien have breasts (furthermore, without nipples)?
Also, is that spider looking tentacle beast wearing jeans on it’s abdomen?
Check out Bonobo Chimpanzees… There is some speculation humans may have evolved from an early “version” of Bonobos.
As per the author blurb (which many people seem adverse to read), it came to “Because he (the author) can!”
Adaptive camouflage works too.
Huh, I thought I had read the author blurb, but perhaps I stopped half way through. I didn’t notice that last statement.
Either way, I wasn’t really criticizing him or anything. I just thought it was funny that a fungus lady would have boobs right after 2 pages of exposition on how alien species evolve (which were the 2 most boring pages in this comic’s history, IMHO).
Never implied you were criticizing him, just many people ask questions that are explained or mentioned in the Blurb (same people who repeat something that was posted just two places above, and several hours apart)
It is not just breasts; that is an obvious humanoid skeleton and a reasonably well defined musculature.
The answer suggested by the previous pages is “For the same reason humans have them: panspermia and guided evolution towards a form conductive to developing technological civilisation.”
Alternatively: that could be a gestalt of a humanoid host and a fungal symbiont.
It may be connected to humans being about the only species on Earth in constant heat. All others have a season, be it either periodic event or a matter of opportunity. Humans breed all year around. Since such a strategy usually either very beneficial for a species’ survival or a catastrophic trait railroading a species into extinction, it is reasonable to assume that most of the surviving species would have an obviously displayed constant sexual traits instead of periodic ones.
Also, every space-faring race has three things in common. First, they all have a food identical to what Humans call Swedish Meatballs. Don’t ask. I don’t understand it. It’s just there. And they all share a myth about a time when ancient dark forces prowled the universe, only to be cast down or cast away by an even greater force. The third, and the most important one – is boobs.
And a Drink called a Whiskisower and another called a Ginnantonic.
//cheers
Umm … cows.
Cows only have large udders after they’ve given birth, when they can be milked. You may notice many cows in the pasture who have no visible udders… those probably aren’t “boy cows.”
I can honestly say that, despite knowing what cows look like and having seen cows quite often when upstate, I have never given them a good close up look for the udders.
It is not after they have given birth, it is on sexual maturity, the same as any other mammalian species. The hormonal changes due to being pregnant and giving birth does tend to “embiggen” them, once again the same as in other mammalian species. It is only wiki but it should help, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammary_gland
They can be induced, by the proper hormones.
I guess asking why a Mycanoid has bosoms would be about as stupid as asking why a centirantula has jorts on.
Those are not necessarily mammal milk glands but perhaps spore sacks or something. And why shouldn’t a centirantula like looking good in fancy clothes?
I too am going with spore sacks as a hand wave.
and as Florence Ambrose once said, you will want pockets.
Also you never know which species will have what concept of nudity, a running gag with centaurs in some comics is what they cover up with what outfits to consider descent.
Screw the sock budget. i want to watch how he gets into that ‘shirt’ withough injuring himself…
What shirt? He is topless, you perv!
i’m pretty sure it’s body armor, with some sort of epaulettes over the shoulders; the front of it is sorta quilted-looking
Fairly sure that’s its exoskeleton (or chitin), just like that’s not a furry cuff around their mandibles
Its pretty obvious that its a shirt of some kind with sleeves. You can see the material quilting in the ‘chest’ area.
But how he puts it on is the real question.
No way that’s a fel ship, not enough copper-green flames roiling out of various cracks and vents in it’s surface. XD
To be amusingly pedantic, starflee DOES embrace holographic controls, eventually.
In the final episode of TNG, where it’s 30 years in the future, the crew that hijacks the Enterprise in order to blow it up (long story) comments on how strange it feels to be using flat controls.
That wasn’t TNG, not sure where it’s from but the last episode of TNG where it’s in the future still has the same controls, even on the one future ship not just the ‘old’ enterprise.
Soon, there may be a fungus among us.
You beat me to it!
Then my work here is done.
Mushroom boobs. They put the fun in fungus.
There is a shroom in the room.
There’s a fungus among us.
There’s a porcini in betweeny.
There’s a portobello right here my good fellow.
There’s an enoki in the pokey.
There’s a shiitake down the block-y.
I salute your punny rhyme skills good sir or madam.
There’s some real-life precedents for sexy non-animals- some orchids look like female beetles so that male beetles will pollinate them by trying to have sex with them.
I’ll take it, just so long as I don’t get ringworm or something similarly painful on my junk.
I used this example once as my excuse for some types of (non-predatory) Alraunes.
Recall that one scene in the second matrix movie where the control tower crew in zion worked in the pristine white room with the floating holographic control system – which they then cut away for a moment to show them all jacked in in a circle in the middle of a dingy dark room.
Also, supposedly the concept of the control panels in star trek from TNG up is that they’re all reconfigurable touch screens that do rearrange themselves based on the preferences of the person manning the console, so be careful to log in at the begining of your shift to make sure that the “order coffee” button hasn’t been swapped to the “jettison warp core” button by the previous operator :)
What if they’ve moved the login button, though?
Simple, you make everyone just puts all the important buttons right next to each other.
One complaint that came from the fans after one (or more) TNG episodes is that Riker has a tendency to sit down or lean on any available surface, such as the bridge navigation console and the engineering control console. I am surprised that he hasn’t at some point accidentally fired a photon torpedo or ejected the warp core.
(FYI: Jonathan Frakes had a bad back and could not stand for long periods)
That sounds like something that would happen on the Orville :)
I’m sure they have a butt-detector module, like one ipad notetaking app I have detects your palm is on the screen and ignores it.
Speaking of reconfiguring the controls, there was a series I read with a futuristic us navy, and the crew was incapacitatd and under attack. The captain, as she started coming to started swatting at her touch screen control panel, and the ships AI decided she was probably wounded, and reconfigured the panel to only a few really big buttons like “ATTACK” “DEFEND”, etc.
Nice rumble spheres
Does Dabbler have an explanation why those are so common even among non-mammal aliens?
Not that we need one :)
Humanoid species are common. Those which have an attraction to breasts are drawn to Earth for the sex tourism industry there. The non-mammal species have found that emulating those make personal and business interactions run much more smoothly, when dealing with humanoids. Then you have the knock-on effect that others may emulate that style, without even realising the original source of the trend. Their market analytics just show that booby models of body mods sell well.
Congrats, you just turned humanoid sexuality into Intergalactic Business English. Maybe we can get the rest of the galaxy to adopt Imperial units too and do away with this ridiculous Metric nonsense! *
* As a survivor of engineering training, certification, and industry, nothing would please me more than for the US and the other 2 countries that still use Imperial units to convert to Metric. But sadly, that ain’t the ‘murican way.
Oops, you made a typo. You wrote “knock-on effect” but your phone must have changed it to that from “knocker effect”.
and lo the gods of the primordial space did create many species in their image
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix7/aegisproemial1.jpg
I’m more curious how fungus lady is able to talk without a mouth…
Just vibrate a surface same as a speaker (as in electronic speaker not someone who’s speaking).
Having an air sack in the middle of the body and exhaling air through the ‘skin’, modulating it in a way unfamiliar with terrestrial species.
Let’s hope she doesn’t have to scream.
the mushroom cap may act as a mouth.
I have an animal I call a “Milk Stone” that looks just like a mushroom and has a filter feeding and breathing mechanism in the mushroom cap part.
conversely could be a case of close mouth vocalization and (hidden maw) where the mouth seals shut or is so tight the seam is hidden (or not where you expect) and when the mouth opens could be a large net mouth for catching prey *or something along those lines*
That’s what the boobs are for.
She may not be precisely humanoid either. The way her butt flows off the screen, she could be centauroid.
Universal translator. She’s talking in her native language, which is pheremone-based like when plants warn each other about bugs. This is picked up by the translator, and converts it into sound, since you silly humans consider that to be language. When you speak with sound, the translator converts that into pheremones so she can understand.
hmm, more so than vibrating the air or psionic pulses, pheromone based translators would have the issue of either needing a molecular converter in them or a storage container of the right chemicals for the species using it to mix and translate.
Not necessarily. If the tech was advanced enough, you could have something installed in your brain that directly translates what you ‘heard’, even if you are deaf. I think of it like a ROM. (Bad example follows)
Go from:
“Is password valid?” “Check site to check if password is valid” “Site says password is valid” “Is product version up to date” “Is up to date version purchased” “Do they have the verification to install?” etc
to:
“Is password valid?” “Yes” “Do they have the verification to install?” “Yes”
Universal translator would bypass your need to hear, and you would just hear, because your brain tells you that you did. No need to use your eardrums at all. Probably the same for her hearing. Really, no need to even translate between people, just have something in your head that gets your thoughts and transmits those directly.
…Is he wearing mittens on his mandibles?
Absolutely – if you had to handle the controls of a police cruiser with your mouth, would you trust your coworkers to always wash their appendages?
One should be careful while operating publicly accessed controls with tongue-equivalent.
Sock it to them!
Am I the only one that thinks Officer Fungus’ head looks like the cork hats that are supposedly worn in Australia to keep flies at bay?
Interestingly the US navy is planning on reverting its ships to using physical controls, both because it is safer and that is what the crews overwhelmingly want. The problems with flat screen displays is that each designer can lay them out how they like. Meaning that each class of ship had different layouts, with the critical parts in different places.
So unless you provide significant retraining to personnel, when they are reassigned you will find that their responses will be slowed in an emergency. Which did cause loss of life in recent accidents.
Of course another route would have been to standardise all the displays. But that standardisation has long been established with ships wheels and other physical controls. So it is a sound decision to keep that familiar format, even though they may be connected to electronics behind the scenes, rather than being an actual manual control.
Which could be a bad choice, when the Cylons attack or an EMP goes off and we find out that the electronics are not as hardened as we would assume military equipment should be. Likewise the next time we get a sufficiently big coronal mass ejection or whatever else knocks out electronics.
I had one of those laser keyboards. Hated it. Went back to a mechanical one. Still have the laser one in my closet.
“You couldn’t take a ship into battle if every time the ship brushed against a piece of space dust, the navigation panel disappeared and dumped the ensign manning it onto a featureless black grid.”
Please. This is Star Trek we’re talking about. It wouldn’t dump them into a featureless black grid.
It would dump them into a 1950’s noir detective drama or a wild west train heist or something.
I like Fun-girl, but I can’t help but feel like she ought to have more fingers. Just, like, maybe 8 on each hand. Or maybe even a different number on each.
It makes sense that a fungoid would be able to shapeshift at least a little bit, since one of the reasons fungi can grow so quickly is their interconnected cellular systems- they’re one of the fastest growing kingdoms because they can just sort of extrude more mass before reinforcing it with nutrients.
That’s exactly what I was thinkng! She … Sorry “She” would probably be constantly.growing new ones, since their primary function is as asexual reproduction buds.
Shedding would make daily interactions the rest of the crew super uncomfortable. The wizardMr Thumbless would agree.
Does anyone else really hate the term “microagression?” I’ve only ever heard it used to shame people who said something innocent that really angry people twist into something offensive.
Myself, if I hear an alien expression that doesn’t involve humans, (“Temba, his arms wide,”) I’m not going to find it offensive and I think it’s ridiculous that anyone would. Trying to include biological or social differences for every sapient species in your colloquialisms, as diverse as such species are, would be a complete a waste of time and frankly suggests everyone’s skin is thin as wax paper.
Sorry; I read a lot of Schlock Mercenary and it’s been a trend there for a couple years now. It bugs the heck out of me and I had to vent.
Yep, same here. Most of those microagressions are from the ones calling them that and not necessarily “micro” in my experience.
There is no such thing as “microaggressions” amongst humans. That is the reason you hate the word.
Either someone is being aggressive… or not. There is no in-between. There are different kinds of aggression, like passive-aggression, but it is not possible for someone to be aggressive on accident. Either you are doing it on purpose or you aren’t doing it.
The word “microaggression” is a fake word invented by privileged people who want to feel special. In reality people are simply careless and rude and there is nothing “micro” about it at all… Among ALIENS however this could be very a very real thing. Maybe Spider-jelly comes from a species with a super-short temper, or maybe Fungi-boobs comes from a very apologetic and shy race. Only time will tell…
This cop is worried about microaggressions? Oh boy they are in for a treat when they meet Sydney…
The space police need to be careful in getting into a fight with a Fel battle cruiser. They have a really powerful attack maneuver where they fly past their target at high speed and launch a salvo of missiles that can take out a ship in one strike. It is known as the Fel Swoop.
But that only works the once. Hence the necessity to make it One Fel Swoop.
I’m both impressed and horrified that you both came up with that pun.
Got here late, I haven’t read all of the comments. Apologies if this has already been noted…
This seemed relevant.
The US Navy put futuristic touch-screen controls on their destroyers, and they messed up, and they didn’t have backup controls. A destroyer ran into a tanker and caused damage and deaths.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/11/20800111/us-navy-uss-john-s-mccain-crash-ntsb-report-touchscreen-mechanical-controls
Me me. I spotted that too :)
And had not checked the comments before posting either. Busy busy.
“microagression” is a word created for and by passive aggressive, manipulative, festering puss fountain dwelling, contagious diabetes spreading, putrifaction drinking, liquid fart bathing sons of coprophilic poultry molesters.
but a strongly approve of its usage from a thing that looks like it has literal fungus for brains inside its mushroom head
Can you work diarrhea into that?
We’re not sure how you feel about the stupidity.
you should go to your safe space, your teddy and safety blanket are missing you
Because I agreed with the sentiment, if not the way it was expressed.
my mistake. previous reactions on ‘nerdy’ chat feeds have overwhelmingly been in defence of sjw speech and i made assumptions on that. my apologies.
Projecting yourself onto others only shows your own lack of self-confidence. Think about what you say. This is the internet.
Someone sounds awfully offended over an entirely obscure word used on the internet.
It’s not some word used on the internet.
It is a word used by the flamestream press, academia, and politicians.
really? Because while I observe many thing, this comic is the first time I’ve seen the term.
I know of passive aggressive, and passive racist comments and the like, but microaggression just sounds like a cartoony term you wouldn’t see outside of something like this.
Microaggression is Orwellian newspeak, and tends to be used by the same types of people who use terms like ‘manspreading,’ ‘cultural appropriation,’ ‘trigger warning,’ ‘personal privilege,’ ‘aggressive scenes,’ and do jazz hands instead of applause because clapping sets off their anxiety (there’s a ridiculously funny example in a recent Democratic Socialists of America meeting which went viral a few weeks ago – they use a lot of Orwellian newspeak).
This is one of the longer cuts I found on the internet. It’s a hoot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPLQNUVmq3o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPLQNUVmq3o
…but the best thing about the word “Microaggression” is its mere existence seems to highly offend bigots in forums.
Oh good, you call people who disagree with you bigots. That’s very open-minded of you. Not to mention you seem to think that the word ‘microaggression’ should be used aggressively against people. But calling people ‘bigots’ because they criticize a newspeak word with a ridiculous definition is just fine and dandy. Guess you went from microaggression to macroaggression. :)
The problem with the word microaggression (and I don’t have a problem with it in the comic because it’s clearly a joke, and a funny joke, and I don’t care when people use it except for that it’s a dumb newspeak word) is it’s a nonsense word. Like mansplaining. And when I say it’s Orwellian, it’s not just a critique. It’s literally a concept out of George Orwell’s 1984.
“Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,’ he said sententiously. ‘It’s insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it.’””
Aggression requires intent. Microaggressions, as part of its ridiculous definition, does not require intent or even knowledge that something is offensive. It makes the idea of aggression entirely based on the audience, not the speaker. In which case pretty much everything anyone can ever say is going to be a microaggression.
Case in point, the DSA meeting.
PS – to anyone else, I’m not criticizing the comic. The joke was funny. Just criticizing people calling other people bigots if they think the word microaggression is stupid.
Manslaughter doesn’t require intent. Doesn’t make the victim less dead.
Part of what makes the joke funny here is that there was obviously no intended sleight, so the apology comes off as overly conscious. An implosion of moral correctness.
I don’t know why the fact that the term acknowledges that sometimes people are out of ignorance instead of intent makes it ridiculous. I also don’t understand what kind of mental shackles you think the existence of the term puts on anyone. Yes people can use the term, any term, foolishly or self servingly. No one will stop you from telling those people to shove it.
Honestly, you shackle yourself if you react with such aversive derision, treat those words or concepts as thought crimes, just because some people malappropriate them.
1) Manslaughter is the unjustifiable, inexcusable, and intentional killing of a human being without deliberation, premeditation, or malice. Intent is still a part of manslaughter – at least voluntary manslaughter. If you mean involuntary manslaughter, that requires criminal negligence or unlawful-act manslaughter, the former of which requires doing something negligent, which means it’s not in any way like a microaggression is to hurting another person’s feelings, and the latter requires doing SOMETHING illegal (usually a misdemeanor) which results in someone dying, which is also not even remotely similar to a microaggression, since speech is not illegal…. especailly not speech where you don’t even think you’re saying anything mean (not that being mean is illegal either, since it is not).
2) Microaggressions would be more similar to accidents where there was not only no intent, but no knowledge that what you were doing COULD lead to the accident in the first place.
3) The idea of comparing saying something which someone else takes in a sensitive way, and comparing it to someone dying is ridiculous. And even with involuntary manslaughter, you are never going to be treated the same way as you were with voluntary manslaughter or murder.
The term is ridiculous because you will NEVER say anything that EVERYONE on the planet (or in this case the galaxy) will not consider offensive. Everyone will consider something offensive. I consider your defense of the word microaggression offensive, but I would not therefore claim you have ‘aggressed’ me. Because I respect other people’s rights to say what they want. It isnt even the other person being impolite – it’s just the listener being unreasonably sensitive.
It’s just dumb to treat words or concepts as thought crimes, which is what the concept of ‘microaggressions’ are, and people who expect others to abide by that way of living, ie, thought police from 1984, tend to be very authoritarian and want to just control how other people think.
1984. Good book. More people should read it. While I’m at it, Demolition Man? Also really good movie. Same concept of the dangers of political correctness.
I’ll just leave a link to this comic commentary on the term ‘manslaughter’.
Since this thread was originally about microaggression, I should probably leave some kind of trigger warning (video is slightly graphic but SFW), but honestly can’t think of a non-ridiculous way to phrase it.
You’re getting distracted by irrelevant points of comparison. Substitute ‘injured’ or ‘damaged’ if you like. The point is that term ‘microagression’ is just a blanket term that includes intentional AND unintentional acts. That ambiguity is useful if you’re talking about something at a general/systemic level. I can say that 387 were injured in a storm and 47 killed without digressing on the level of injuries. I could run a study that compares recorded instances of microagressions made by some group as it correlates to some environmental factor.
“saying something which someone else takes in a sensitive way”
You’re redefining microagression down past it’s most minimalized potential definition based on someone’s misappropriation of the term? That’s like saying; “Injury is a meaningless term. Any damage to an organism could be considered injury, so it’s really subjective. Here’s a video edit of some people trying to get admitted to the hospital for entropy. Anyone who claims to be injured is like these pussies. Laugh at them.” At MINIMUM there needs to be some “hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slight or insult” and the term includes everything UP to overt harm to one’s person or property. The term doesn’t criminalize thought, or make equivalent any action that could be classified as a microagression.
Of course there are going to be some people who go out of their way to be offended. Some of those people might choose to hide behind the term ‘microagression’, to treat it’s ambiguity as a blanked protection against criticism. These people are dumb, and you should criticize them.
“It’s just dumb to treat words or concepts as thought crimes”
Yes, I agree. Why are you treating the concept of ‘microaggressions’ as a thought crime?
I think I’m going to trust my 3 years of law school and 2 state bar certifications, as well as every legal dictionary ever written, on knowing the definition of manslaughter, as well as Lexis-Nexis and but that was a funny comedy bit. :)
People just tend to confuse a lack of malice with a lack of intent. There’s no way you can do something like ‘voluntary’ manslaughter without intent being a part of it. Even with involuntary manslaughter, the thing that you DID that was wrong was something you intended to do, and knew was wrong when you did it, usually a misdemeanor or criminally negligent action. Saying something innocent and having someone else take unreasonable offense at it is the opposite of that.
Btw the word ‘manslaughter’ originally just meant ‘the act of killing’ but as laws got more complex, they realized they needed to distinguish killing with acts of malice from killing without malice.
Either way, to make a comparison of manslaughter with microaggressions is pretty much nuts :).
Ok only going to respond to this because… I dunno. Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in. And the first half I can claim is legal talk. :)
“Substitute ‘injured’ or ‘damaged’ if you like.”
With the exception of directed action and defamation, words do not injure people. And directed action and defamation are already the only exceptions to free speech. The former, because it’s the intent to cause an action that’s a crime, not the speech itself. The latter, because it’s the lie that’s the crime, not that you speak. Because an ABSOLUTE defense against a charge of defamation is to prove that it’s the truth. Basic first year tort law.
“The point is that term ‘microagression’ is just a blanket term that includes intentional AND unintentional acts”
If it was an intentional act, it wouldnt need the prefix of ‘micro’ before it. It would just be aggression. The whole point of the term ‘microaggression’ is that it’s something that’s said in common speech that isnt even intended to be an insult, but is taken as an insult by the listener, despite that it would not be reasonable to assume that it would be when it was spoken.
Someone tried to compare it to manslaughter, and I had to point out that was wrong. And this isnt a political thing, which why I’m still talking about it. It’s a legal thing. You have to base a crime, including a social crime (which isnt really a crime) on the speaker, not on the listener. Microaggressions are entirely in the purview of the listener. ANY listener that might happen to hear it. Essentially, microaggressions are thought crimes, essentially. And thought crimes are stupid… and not crimes. The big problem with microaggressions is it makes the listener think they have an excuse to engage in ACTUAL aggression back at the speaker. Because hey… if someone is aggressive to you, you would naturally defend yourself right? Ramp that up to 11 with people who tend to use the word ‘microaggression’ and you get a lot of actual violence.
“At MINIMUM there needs to be some “hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slight or insult”
Incorrect. Asking someone “Where are you from?” is considered a microaggression. Complimenting someone on their eloquence is a microaggression. Assuming someone can speak a particular language is a microaggression if they think you’re from a certain country. It’s not rude even. It’s just people asking questions.
Case in point – I was born in Hawaii. I’ve had people ask me what the words to the Aue Aue We Know the Way song in Moana in English, which I don’t know since I don’t speak Maori or Samoan beyond a few basic words, were and I did not consider them to be doing something aggressive – I just said ‘Yeah I have no idea, I moved from Hawaii when I was 4 months old….’ then I looked up the translation for them because google is a thing. What I did not do is point at then and start exclaiming they were microaggressing me. That would be spastic.
That isnt minimalizing the word ‘microaggression’ down. What people who compare it to ‘anything that annoys me’ are doing is minimalizing the word microaggression down, acting like it just means ‘being rude.’ But none of what I just gave as examples are rude. They’re just questions spurred on by curiosity and they assume that you might know the answer because they do not have mind reading powers to know what you do and do not know, or everything about you.
“Of course there are going to be some people who go out of their way to be offended.”
Yes. Those are the people who use words like ‘microaggression’ and triggered for things that have nothing to do with genuine physiological damage from psychological trauma (ie, PTSD). Or people who claim to have PTSD but actually just are oversensitive about how they’ve had crappy stuff happen in their life, as if they are the only ones who have. Those people never have an actual case of PTSD, or innocent words would be the least of what was on their mind. Actual PTSD is debilitating.
“Some of those people might choose to hide behind the term ‘microagression’, to treat it’s ambiguity as a blanked protection against criticism.”
Right. When they treat the word as the same as ‘people saying things that I don’t like’ or ‘people saying things which give me an excuse to have social dominance over them by showing that I’m a better person than them.’ Which tends to be who uses terms like ‘microaggression.’ Although I suspect the mushroom girl is just overly polite or ignorant of how dumb she sounds, which the spider guy summed up by ‘shut up and shoot.’
“These people are dumb, and you should criticize them.”
I most certainly do.
“Yes, I agree. Why are you treating the concept of ‘microaggressions’ as a thought crime?”
Because that’s essentialy what the concept of microaggresions are. Thought crimes. The listener is assuming subconcious malicious intent where none exists. Which is why I think the term is really dumb.
You two seem to really be missing each other’s points a lot. I agree with a lot of both of your points and disagree with a lot of others.
Also, Pander, you seem to not understand analogies very well.
Trigger warnings have existed way before people started complaining about SJWs or whatever.
Yes, but it used to be used in respect to actual major psychological trauma. Now it’s used for any words or situation or reference to situation that people don’t like, in an attempt to squash the speech of others. Again, sort of like in Orwell’s 1984. So it basically devalues the word, by making it refer to a very disparate set of phenomena, from the psychiatric to the political, many of which do not involve a trigger-like process.
“Yes, but it used to be used in respect to actual major psychological trauma.”
It still does. I don’t see anyone that has majorly changed that. The “trigger warnings” for most media remains reasonable.
I honestly don’t get why it matters if a few people use trigger warnings for less serious things. It’s not like the concept is copyrighted or owned. Anyone can make and use trigger warnings.
No, it doesn’t. Psychological trauma does not mean ‘makes you feel bad because you read or heard something.’ Psychological trauma is like post traumatic stress disorder, or an actual physiological reaction to a ‘trigger.’ Not just ‘You said something that I don’t like, I’m triggered!’ That’s just one person trying to control other people’s speech like an authoritarian. Plus it kills the ability of authors, comedians, and actors to do their craft, and horribly limits open dialog between people of different opinions.
When people use a major term for minor things, it does diminish the concept. It’s as if you say ‘this is the worst food I’ve ever eaten’…. but say it for every meal you ever eat.
The first part of your comment mostly seems like a rant about something I wasn’t even contesting.
***
“Plus it kills the ability of authors, comedians, and actors to do their craft”
No it doesn’t. All entertainment creators are free to leave trigger warnings out if they so wish.
Sure, some people might be offended(especially if whatever subject is handled poorly) but that’s always a risk. It’s a Hell of a better reaction than being driven out of town or thrown in jail, though.(Which is what used to happen to comedians that made religious jokes in America.)
“and horribly limits open dialog between people of different opinions.”
It’s not limiting my dialogue with people. Is it limiting yours?
“When people use a major term for minor things, it does diminish the concept.”
Maybe overtime. But the term “trigger warning” is still treated seriously in academia and used appropriately for a lot of major pieces of work.
Like that new “The Boys” show which explores dark themes like sexual assault and harassment.
“The first part of your comment mostly seems like a rant about something I wasn’t even contesting.”
Yes, I’ve noticed that with you, you tend to just tell people they’re wrong without actually talking about the merits of what they said.
“No it doesn’t. All entertainment creators are free to leave trigger warnings out if they so wish.”
They’re also free to NOT give trigger warnings, since as an audience member, you’re free to not not listen. Not to mention, like I said before, which you conveniently ignored, the larger an audience of people there are, the more likely it is that SOMEONE will be triggered by something that you might consider inoffensive. Why should people have to put trigger warnings over every single thing they ever say. Why have YOU not put any trigger warnings on your posts? If you’re going to require it of others, start with yourself, right? Otherwise, you’re being a hypocrite.
“Sure, some people might be offended(especially if whatever subject is handled poorly) but that’s always a risk.”
Some person will ALWAYS be offended. Which is why it’s ridiculous to consider ‘microaggressions’ to be a real thing, rather than an attempt to have authority over other people’s thoughts. Like I said – Orwellian. Orwellian is bad, btw.
“It’s a Hell of a better reaction than being driven out of town or thrown in jail, though.”
Tell that to Markus Meechan. He almost was thrown in jail for his joke. Many comedians refuse to do standup on college campuses anymore specifically because of people being oversensitive and claiming to be ‘triggered’ by comedy. And again, watch the DSA meeting. I somehow doubt you bothered to. That’s where ‘trigger warnings’ get you. Then comes jailtime. Or being physically attacked for words. Which has already happened. In America. By people who think trigger warnings and microaggressions are in any way coherent ideas.
“(Which is what used to happen to comedians that made religious jokes in America.)”
So you think it’s bad for it to happen to comedians who make religious jokes, but NOT bad when it happens to comedians who make anti-politically correct jokes? So basically, it’s only bad when it’s something you don’t like.
“It’s not limiting my dialogue with people. Is it limiting yours?”
Of course it is. And if you think it doesn’t limit yours, I welcome you to go to, for example, a DSA meeting, or an Antifa march, or another significant-sized group where they treat microaggressions and trigger warnings like the gospel, and say something that is not politically correct. I doubt you will make it out without being hospitalized or at the very least, being physically attacked.
Look up Bret Weinstein and Evergreen College :). Or the riots at Berkeley in 2017, because an orthodox jewish conservative was going to speak at the college campus. Or Mizzou’s Journalism Professor, Melissa Click, who was calling ‘for some muscle’ to get physically force a student journalist out of the campus because his questions were micro-aggressions and his mere presence was triggering people, according to her.
“Maybe overtime. But the term “trigger warning” is still treated seriously in academia and used appropriately for a lot of major pieces of work.”
Not over time. It’s already a thing.
“Like that new “The Boys” show which explores dark themes like sexual assault and harassment.”
The Boys is an excellent show, based on an excellent comic book, and does not need a trigger warning. Also the main point of The Boys is about what happens when most superheroes are treated like infallible gods in a real world setting, and how they tend to be like most people – absolute power corrupts absolutely, and they see normal people as insignificant peons, to the point they don’t even remember their faces or names…. even after one of them runs THROUGH a woman and kills her because he was on drugs while using superspeed.
Btw I take back the first thing I said, since you do -sometimes- respond to the actual things I say. Just most of the time, you don’t.
“They’re also free to NOT give trigger warnings, since as an audience member, you’re free to not not listen.”
That is what I said, yes.
“Some person will ALWAYS be offended. Which is why it’s ridiculous to consider ‘microaggressions’ to be a real thing”
You just seem to be repeating what I’ve said, but in a argumentative way.
“Tell that to Markus Meechan.”
I was referring to America, I don’t know what’s going on in Scotland.
“So you think it’s bad for it to happen to comedians who make religious jokes, but NOT bad when it happens to comedians who make anti-politically correct jokes?”
That’s not what I said, so no.
“Of course it is. And if you think it doesn’t limit yours, I welcome you to go to, for example, a DSA meeting, or an Antifa march, or another significant-sized group where they treat microaggressions and trigger warnings like the gospel, and say something that is not politically correct. I doubt you will make it out without being hospitalized or at the very least, being physically attacked.”
That’s the case for any extreme group. And compared to how violent things used to be, I’m significantly less likely to be attacked or killed for my political views than even 20 years ago.
And honestly, when it comes to being attacked for the things you say and support in 2019 America, I’m more likely to be attacked for my ethnicity and liberal views by far right groups rather than Anti-fa. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/08/01/report-hate-crime-is-rising-in-30-major-american-cities-infographic/#486aee87b8d0
“The Boys is an excellent show, based on an excellent comic book, and does not need a trigger warning.”
Maybe not, but it still has one due to the creator being smart enough to recognize the fairly sensitive subjects he’d touching on.(Even if The Boys isn’t exactly meant to be thought provoking.)
I’m pretty sure this is the last response I’ll make to you on PC stuff, since I’m finding it less than enjoyable.
“You just seem to be repeating what I’ve said, but in a argumentative way.”
Yes, that’s what happens in an argument. Also, you’ve been extremely argumentative as well. Because this is an argument. We are arguing. Usually because you respond to my posts with an argument, and I defend my posts, and you send me down these rabbit holes.
“I was referring to America, I don’t know what’s going on in Scotland.”
Well you clearly know who he is since you knew he’s from Scotland. And you decided to ignore the other examples I gave that were in America. Berkeley riots. Bret Weinstein and Evergreen College. Melissa Click. You do this very frequently, ignoring anything which you can’t argue against, rather than conceding a point. It’s very disingenuous of you and comes off as ‘trollery’ instead of an argument. Definitely isnt enjoyable.
“That’s the case for any extreme group. And compared to how violent things used to be, I’m significantly less likely to be attacked or killed for my political views than even 20 years ago.”
Wear a MAGA hat in Portland, then get back to me. We are extremely divided politically today compared to 20 years ago.
“And honestly, when it comes to being attacked for the things you say and support in 2019 America, I’m more likely to be attacked for my ethnicity and liberal views by far right groups rather than Anti-fa.”
I doubt it. Go wave an antifa flag in Texas, or wear a Che Guevara shirt anywhere in the heartland. Then, go wear a MAGA hat in Portland. In one place you will either just get an argument, or people will ignore you. In the other, you will get physically assaulted.
“Maybe not, but it still has one due to the creator being smart enough to recognize the fairly sensitive subjects he’d touching on.(Even if The Boys isn’t exactly meant to be thought provoking.)”
That’s odd. I watched all of The Boys on Amazon Video, and I’ve read the comics. There was no trigger warning given. Not that there needs to be. The Boys is a deconstruction. Like Watchmen.
And if you watched a version where there was one, it seems unnecessary and pandering. I didn’t see any though. Like you said, The Boys isnt meant to be deeply thought provoking beyond ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ and ‘Superheroes are people, and people are often quite bad, thoughtless, or both.’ Garth Ennis isn’t exactly a social justice warrior type, if you’ve ever read Preacher, The Boys, the Punisher, or any of his other books.
I’m going to stop responding about your political arguments now though unless it’s specifically about law or comics. It’s not particularly enjoyable, and how you ignore specific parts of my posts and/or moving goalposts when making your arguments is becoming a little annoying.
“Yes, that’s what happens in an argument.”
No, it is not.
I have repeatedly stated at this point that I agree that trigger warnings should be used for things that can actually “trigger” serious trauma.
Yet you keep acting as if I don’t.
“Well you clearly know who he is since you knew he’s from Scotland.”
I just typed his name into Google and saw that he was Scottish.
“We are extremely divided politically today compared to 20 years ago. … I doubt it.”
I mean, you’re statistically, objectively wrong about that.(See, the statistic I posted earlier) But go off I guess.
“There was no trigger warning given.”
It’s not called specifically that phrase, but it is there. You don’t anything analogous to, “Only for Mature Audiences”, or, “This show contains graphic gore and sexual content.” ?
Those are not ‘trigger warnings’, those are ‘viewer discretion required’ notifications
The idea that you think that Garth Ennis is remotely SJW in his mentality makes me think you’ve never read any of his comics.
And like Guesticus pointed out, those are not trigger warnings. They’re ‘Viewer Discretion is Advised’ warnings about how the show might be too graphic for young viewers.
You’re acting like a movie being rated higher than PG-13 is a trigger warning. I didnt bother responding mainly because your posts tend to get more and more ridiculous, and this is not a remotely enjoyable argument because you don’t pay attention to what’s being said.
Using a trigger warning doesn’t make someone an SJW, so I’m not calling him that.
“They’re ‘Viewer Discretion is Advised’ warnings about how the show might be too graphic for young viewers.”
Those are basically trigger warnings, both in their intended purpose and how they’re typically used.
Pander, you weren’t even making sense at this point. You were responding to points Blonk didn’t make, or responding to their points in ways that didn’t make the slightest bit of sense. My goodness, when you said to Blonk, “your posts tend to get more and more ridiculous” and “you don’t pay attention to what’s being said”, that was certainly the pot calling the kettle black. Are you okay?
‘aggressive scents’ not ‘aggressive scenes’ btw.
It’s not obscure for anyone who has had to suffer through a politically correct-infested college campus. :)
It’s just obscure for normal people (aka normies) who avoid social justice warriors like the plague (always a good idea and I envy them) or are fortunate enough to not run into them on a regular basis (ie, people who don’t live in major cities).
Been to a college campus in a major city, and nobody has been shouting about micro-aggressions to me. Maybe just don’t associate with those kinds of people?
I said ‘politically-correct infested’ college campus. And if you’ve been to any college that has a formally wiritten speech code, you’re in a college where that speech code likely has microaggressions mentioned.
My college is pretty heavily liberal, so I don’t know any better place to meet these people that are giving you so much grief.
Well maybe it’s because you agree with them and the idea of speech codes. :) It’s a possibility, since you’re arguing about how terms like trigger warnings and microaggression are good things (although maybe you’re just making an argument for the sake of making an argument, which is something I can respect). Or perhaps when they start in on people, you say nothing. Which is also understandable. I tend to try to avoid getting face to face with people like that as well. IF not the latter though, and you’re in a liberal college with speech codes, and don’t notice that you’re not free to say what you want without punishment, then it’s more likely the former.
Fortunately, most of the time when I do argue with someone, there’s a guy in a black robe to tell both sides to keep to the point (not that I go to court much, since I changed my specialty to intellectual property law). Just so you know, there’s no such thing as microaggressions in court, and definitely no such thing as trigger warnings.
Feel free to do a search for any of the examples I presented below. Or click on the link. I also think you would at least find the Jordan Peterson / Cathy Newman interview interesting, which is all about triggering other people, and why, in order to be able to have constructive arguments, you must be free to risk offending others. Especially when arguing about important issues.
No one argues with each other when everyone already agrees with each other, or when everyone is too scared of ridicule to disagree with the loudest, most threatening people who will try to shame you into submission. That’s not a good thing. That’s IngSoc from 1984.
“Well maybe it’s because you agree with them and the idea of speech codes. :)”
More like it’s never come up. We mostly talk about our college courses, games, and/or personal stuff.
Never really felt the need, and apparently neither have they, to bring up microaggressions or trigger warnings or anything like that.
“It’s a possibility, since you’re arguing about how terms like trigger warnings and microaggression are good things”
I have not once said throughout this conversation that microaggressions are good things.
“More like it’s never come up. We mostly talk about our college courses, games, and/or personal stuff.”
I highly doubt you don’t talk about anything political, given how everything you ever respond to here is political. But I also suspect you might only talk to friends who have the same opinions as you, and do not venture out of that group.
“I have not once said throughout this conversation that microaggressions are good things.”
Okay now i think you’re just trolling a bit. I’m clearly talking about how you defend labelling things as microaggressions being a good thing. Not that microagressions are good things. Or even a real thing.
“I highly doubt you don’t talk about anything political”
Rarely since almost none of my courses are political in nature. And even on the occasion that I do… Well, “microaggressions” is hardly relevant in the current political climate. It’s fairly niche thing.
“Okay now i think you’re just trolling a bit. I’m clearly talking about how you defend labelling things as microaggressions being a good thing. Not that microagressions are good things. Or even a real thing.”
Let me clarify then; I never said using microaggressions as a label was a good thing.
I think the word “microaggression” is a useful language innovation, as it creates a word for something that has always existed but that we’ve never quite had a word for in English.
As is always the case for new words, there’s a fumbling phase where we’re trying to nail down the exact proper usage and when it should apply and when it shouldn’t. You may not agree with all the uses. But I think most people instinctively “get” the concept as a social phenomenon.
It honestly sounds like a word they could have made up for the movie Demolition Man, and yet somehow is a real word now.
i think most people would realise its pathetic and a demonstration of a weak person looking for passive ways to manipulate someone else with language. a method to control someone by accusing them of aggression they arent actually expressing. its bitchy.
Well… yes. Most rules policing other people’s speech are attempts to manipulate others with language, in an attempt to control people.
Officer: “It’s illegal. Alcohol, caffeine, contact sports, meat, …
John Spartan: “… are you sh**ting me?
*BZZZT* “John Spartan, you are fined one credit for violation of the verbal morality statute”
John Spartan: “… the hell is that?”
*BZZZT* “John Spartan, you are fined one credit for violation of the verbal morality statute”
Officer: “…bad language, chocolate, gasoline, uneducational toys, and anything spicy.”
Oh also, people who are into trigger warnings and microaggressions reminds me of Escape from LA.
Snake Plissken: Got a smoke?
Malloy: The United States is a non-smoking nation! No smoking, no drugs, no alcohol, no women – unless you’re married – no foul language, no red meat.
Snake Plissken: Land of the free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZCypUOH8js
Just a hint, these movies were meant to be entertainment, not instruction manuals :)
Have you heard they are going to remake “Escape from New York”? Can you imagine how politically-correct that shit will be now? :(
another few laps of the 5 stages of grief it is then…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Well at least Escape from LA is safe right? Please tell me that Escape from LA is safe from their politically correct hands?
I mean… maybe it’ll be okay? The remake of Death Wish didnt suck, after all?
No idea, just saw a recommendation while watching a couple clips (didn’t look at the recommendations as wasn’t interested in listening to crap: there is no justification for remaking such an iconic classic, at all, ever!)
Whether EfLA evades being remade depends on what shit they do with EfNY
If it doesnt have Kurt Russell, it’s not Snake Bliskin. If it’s not Snake Bliskin, it’s not Escape from anywhere.
Plisskin, not Bliskin. What was I even thinknig.